© 2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

All Aboard Andi's Dream

Chapter 5

Home Again, Home Again

The last few days in Florida were spent in the Jupiter area. They remained on Andi's Dream in the Jupiter Yacht Club and just relaxed. Bit-na was in school, so she was dropped off every morning and they returned to the boat and relaxed. The repairs to the Zodiac were completed and after charging up the batteries, Paul loaded up Andi, Macy, and the twins and they explored the local waterways of Jupiter, Florida on the small boat. The zodiac is stored on the foredeck of Andi's dream. There's a davit up front to lift it into its storage space, but it also ties down nicely to the swim deck.

The twins loved the zodiac much more than Andi's dream. To them, the zodiac was a boat, while Andi's dream was a bouncing, rocking apartment with a pleasant view. As they purred along through the waterways of Jupiter Florida, the twins dangled their little hands in the water, hoping to pet a manatee or, better yet, catch a baby shark. Being able to hold bait fish, they believed that were ready to move up and catch a baby shark.

There was a huge brick lighthouse in Jupiter that they sailed over to in the little Zodiac. They spent the afternoon there and climbed to the top and looked out on the Jupiter area from the top of the light. The twins had to be carried down because they were too tired to climb back down, but once they were down, they had no problem frolicking under a huge live oak tree near the base of the tower. But the real fun they had as they stayed was the Amalthea.

Amalthea was Paul and John's 24-foot Bermuda rigged Tartan 245 Caraluna sloop. It was a nice little sailboat with a small outboard motor and a 12 volt electrical system to power the data center which combined compass, wind gauge and sonar. They took it out and gently sailed up the intercostal waterway to a restaurant in Sebastian that Paul and Macy loved on previous visits. On the way, they saw manatees as the gentle winds pushed them up the Indian River.

"This is so nice," said Andi. "Would you mind if I laid out?"

"No, go right ahead," said Paul. While the twins played in the tiny space below deck, Andi and Macy crawled forward and laid out in their bikinis on either side of the jib sail and watched the clouds keep pace with them. Andi has never experienced a more peaceful way of traveling. She had to be roused by the twins when they got to Sebastian. The trip was just that peaceful. The restaurant that they stopped at was named Squid Lips, and it had its own docking pier.

Paul pulled up to the pier and dropped sail, and they tied off. The tide was out, so Paul had to lift the twins up to Macy and Andi, who were on the pier. Then donning a sarong, Andi did something she never, ever dreamed would happen. She entered the restaurant wearing a bikini top. Her large breasts bobbled merrily, barely confined in her bikini top. In fact, she and Macy wore matching sarongs and bikinis. "Isn't it cold?" asked the hostess as she seated them.

"No, it's quite warm," said Andi. "I'm from Denver. This is so nice down here."

"I am from Quebec," said Macy. "We now live in Buffalo. Like my sister, I am used to the very cold weather. This is nice today." The temperature was about 80 and the locals were shivering. "My sister, her husband, and I will start with a cup of conch chowder."

The conch chowder was out of this world as far as Andi was concerned. She and Macy split an order of Bahama Mahi (dolphin that was pan sauteed and topped with mango salsa) and Paul had the lobster and crab cake while the twins split a chicken finger basket. "This place caters to the tourists and snowbirds," said Macy. "Their quality is quite satisfactory. Yi may even enjoy it."

"Don't be hacking on Yi. She's moving to Buffalo to be with us."

"Oui, there is a lot of love there," admitted Macy.

After lunch, they checked out the souvenir shop, and the girls noticed a prize they couldn't live without. Stuffed sailfish dolls. "Mister Unicorn!" they cried. "Please, please, please, can we have one?"

"One or one each?" asked Paul.

"YES!"

They headed back to the Amalthea, a stuffed sailfish in the loving caress of Sandy and Madeline. Paul isn't the type to buy a child a toy just to quiet them down, and neither is Andi, but the twins have been good on this trip. Their only souvenirs were plastic sand pails full of seashells, so this time, their good behavior was rewarded. They each got a stuffed sailfish, and both named their "stuffy" Mr. Unicorn, and they proudly showed off their sailfish to everyone on the pier.

"Won't that be confusing if both fish have the same name?" asked Paul.

Sandy and Madeline looked at him in shock. "No," they chimed in unison and they walked back to the boat, shaking their heads. Fathers can be confusing.

Soon they were in the Amalthea and purring out the channel to the Indian river headed back to Andi's Dream in Jupiter. Out in the dredged boating channel, Paul lowered the running board and raised the sails. They caught a lively breeze and were soon sailing at a sparkling pace.

"I could do this all month long," purred Andi.

"Sailing back and forth between Jupiter and Sebastian?"

"Just sailing. Have you taken this out into the open ocean?"

"Yes, it was a super calm day, but we sailed around for a few hours. Then we got becalmed for a few hours. Then when we got back, we bought a bigger motor."

Again, Andi had her dream about sailing topless with her man, just basking in the sun as the wind carried them away. "This is what sailing is all about..." she purred as she leaned back and soaked up the sun.

"Oui," sighed Macy. "For John and I this boat helped our marriage so much." She leaned back and smiled.

"Helped your marriage?"

"Oui, it calms us. Being a pastor can be very stressful. This relaxes us, helps us cleanse our souls and we come back with a fresh outlook on life."

"The church council will occasionally beg me to drag her and John down her for a little together time," chuckled Paul.

"Next time, could we tow the Amalthea behind Andi's Dream and do our island hopping from this?"

"I'll look into it."

The next night was their last night in Florida. As soon as Sunny picked up Bitty from school and they arrived at Andi's Dream, they cast off. They easily threaded their way out of the Yacht Club with Andi at the helm, then they charged the Jupiter inlet. The seas at the Jupiter Inlet were pretty rough, the tide was coming in and they were headed out, but soon they were free of the rough water and Andi turned north and opened up the throttles.

They raced north to Cape Canaveral and got there just after sunset. Stan showed Andi how to set Andi's dream to station keeping. As Yi prepared dinner, Andi and Paul packed everything up. They were heading back to Buffalo in the morning. Yi grilled steak and some huge shrimp on the grill in the cockpit and served them with perfectly baked potatoes. A simple but delicious dinner.

As they finished dinner, the sky to the north of them suddenly grew bright and a triple point of light slowly climbed into the sky. The rumble and roar of the Falcon Heavy reached them as the huge rocket raced skywards. Bitty and the twins were in the cockpit, bouncing up and down with excitement as the rocket blasted off into space. And then, just to entertain the girls, the two boosters returned to Cape Canaveral. The twins were in slack jawed shock as the "rocket pieces" landed not very far from where they were eating dinner.

Later, there was swimming off the stern and the twins finally trusted their life jackets and splashed around with poppa. Then, as the twins slept in Gus and Lucy's suite, Paul and Andi made love one last time in their executive suite. At sunrise, they were boarding a shuttle bus from Cocoa Beach to Orlando Airport.

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Sandy and Madeline Jarecki strode through the Buffalo International Airport like they owned the building. They were decked out in matching brightly colored tropical print sundresses, neon pink sandals, Minnie Mouse sunglasses, straw hats, straw purses emblazoned with "Florida," and each carried a stuffed sailfish under their arm. Heads turned as they walked through the terminal and a photograph was taken here or there, but the twins carried on like genuine celebrities, their heads turning neither left nor right. They were focused on one mission, and nothing was going to deter them.

Their parents had to rush to keep up, struggling under the load of carryon baggage and the girl's snacks, along with jackets and boots that the twins refused to wear. They were followed by Macy and Yi, who were watching the parade with great enjoyment.

Paul went to get the Ranger out of long-term parking while the girls collected the luggage and wrestled the twins into winter clothing. To keep the girls occupied while she collected the bags, Andi dialed up her mom, set up a face time call and handed the phone to the twins, then turned to Yi. "Ok, you're on the clock. They tend to wander around when they talk on the phone, try to keep them corralled." Then Andi and Macy headed off looking for the luggage, leaving the first time governess Yi alone in a strange town, with two precocious children who weren't interested in paying attention to her.

"Grandma Heather!" they cried as Heather's face appeared on the screen.

"Grandma Heather? Like you have another grandma?" Heather knew Mama Giardino, occasionally called "Grandma Busketti" by the twins, and her insisting that she was going to be a grandmother to the girls. In fact, she and Mrs. Giardino spoke at length about Paul and John at the wedding reception and the Christmas dinner. However, being called Grandma Heather came as a bit of a surprise because she was used to being called simply as Grandma.

"We do! We just got her before we went on the boat," said Madeline.

"Yeah! Grandma Mama!" said Sandi, "she gives us busketti"

"And ravolini!"

"And crams!" Heather smiled as she remembered the "crams" that Mama Giardini brought to the wedding reception, a huge plate of Clams Casino, and some of them were clam free for those with shellfish allergies and for the small children that were there. The twins turned up their noses at them until someone dropped one and Wonka gobbled it up. It was only then that they tried one and loved them.

"Where did you go on your vacation?"

The twins thought hard for a moment. There had to be something that happened in the past two or three weeks. "Mmmm... oh yeah! We saw Micky, and Minnie, and Ella, and Snow White, and the Pirates, and a haunted house, and a train that went zoom! Zoom! Zoom!" The descriptions came fast and furious and it appeared to Heather that the rest of the vacation couldn't hold a candle to Disney World for these two imps.

"What about the boat? Didn't your mommy get a boat?"

"Yeah, that was pretty cool, but we got a boat too!" said Sandy. The twins considered the Zodiac theirs.

"It's bouncy and you can touch the water and it has a motor and you can put it on top of mommy's boat, and it takes us swimming and shopping..." Madeline was bubbling about the Zodiac. She then took a deep breath and continued, "...and I got a stuffy that looks like a unicorn fish and a... oh wait, mommy wants to talk to you, bye Grandma!"

"Wuv yoo!" cried Sandy and Madeline in unison as Andi retrieved her phone. She killed the video feed and put her ear buds on.

"Hi mommy!" she said, and her cheery demeanor surprised even herself. She looked out the glass doors and saw that it was slushy and wet outside. A miserable gray day, cold and nasty and wet, her tropical vacation just a fading memory, and she has her "mother monster" on the phone. And through all that, she feels happy, almost elated to be talking to her mom cheerfully for the first time since that horrible news came back from Iraq.

"My goodness little one, you haven't called me mommy in decades!" And Heather was right. Since Andi's father died, so did a special piece of Andi. It was always "mother" or "ma", rarely mom and never mommy.

"I know, mom, and I want to talk about it, just you and me. Together, with nothing going on to distract us and not over the phone, face to face, ok?"

Heather had waited so long to hear those words! Sadly, their mother-daughter relationship had cooled that horrible day, and Heather thought it had died in the years since her Danny died. She wanted to scream Yes! as loudly as possible, but she held back her excitement. "That sounds wonderful, dear, but..."

"No buts," said Andi and she continued, "Fourth of July weekend. Trust me, it's going to be great. We'll fly you out then Paul and Harold and Yi can watch the twins while you and I have some girl time together... ok? ... please say yes!"

"Of course, dear, Harold and I will love to be there."

"Ok, gotta go. Paul just pulled up with the car. I'll send more pictures later," then in a softer tone, "I love you, mommy."

Heather's heart leaped into her throat; she hadn't heard those words in almost 30 years. "I love you too, darling."

Andi and Paul were still loading the luggage into the Ranger when John pulled up and after a long passionate kiss with Macy, he loaded up Macy and Yi's luggage and drove off before Paul and Andi had the twins strapped into their car seats. "Awww, no fair!" cried Sandy.

"We didn't have to wear these on the boat!" added Madeline as she tugged at the child seat restraints.

"You're not on the boat anymore," explained Andi. "There are crazy drivers here."

"It's yucky and cold and wet here!"

"Yeah, we want to go back to the Obamas!"

"That's BAA-hamas," corrected Andi for what felt like the one hundredth time.

She and Paul finally finished when Paul noticed Madeline was on the wrong side. She was seated on the right, and she always insisted on sitting on Sandy's left. Right now, they were not saying anything, but experience has shown Andi and Paul that in about 20 minutes, the twins will notice and start complaining about everything as they got cranky over the seating arrangement. Keeping Sandy on the right side prevented arguments, so the exhausted parents switched out the girls and were soon on the road.

As they headed south on US 90, the sloppy, rainy weather soon turned to more spring like weather, the snow was gone from the sides of the roads and was only seen in slowly melting drifts and piles at the ends of driveways, but as they merged on to "da two nineteen" and headed south towards "the snow belt", winter returned. As they passed Orchard Park, snow gently fell from the sky. That is when the twins started sniffling.

Andi turned around and saw the pouting faces. "Hey, what's wrong, you two?"

Sandy pouted. "It's snowing. Bitty said she never seen snow before." Huge tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I miss Bitty!" wailed Madeline and suddenly both were crying softly.

"Aww, come on you guys! Bitty had to go back to school." Andi turned around to settle down the girls. "But she'll be coming up to visit us this summer, and you can take her swimming in Poppa Paul's pond!"

"I thought they would have missed Wonka," said Paul softly.

"WONKA!" shrieked Sandy, "We forgot about Wonka!"

"NO ONE WAS THERE TO FEED HIM!" shrieked Madeline at the top of her lungs.

"AND THE CHICKENS!" cried Sandy.

As the twins wept in horror over the suspected deaths of their animal friends, Andi glared at Paul. The entire time they were gone, Wonka was never mentioned, and they agreed to keep it that way to prevent a scene like this. "I didn't think they'd hear me over their crying," pleaded Paul.

"Little five-year-old ears work a lot better than your jet engine deafened ears," Andi reminded him. She loosened her seat belt and turned around. "Wonka is ok, Veronica, and Mister Ayato and Miss Julissa have been taking care of him, and the nice people with the piggies, Mr. and Mrs. Clemmons, have watched the chickens."

"You sure they're ok?" sniffed Sandy.

"They're fine," Andi assured them. "They would have called us if there was a problem."

Madeline shuddered on the edge of crying again. "What if Wonka forgot us?"

"You'll see, he remembers you," said Paul. "He'll be so happy to see you he may even piddle!"

Andi thought that Paul's statement was to make the girls laugh, which it did, but it also turned out to be quite prophetic. Twenty minutes later, as the twins burst through the kitchen door, snow swirling about them, Wonka came up to everyone whining in excitement, his tail whirring like a fan, licking the girls' hands and faces as they hugged him, adding to his excitement. They tried to tell him about their trip to Florida and to the "Obamas", but he didn't seem to care about their stories. He was just happy to have his girls back.

Just as the girls were ready to dash out of the kitchen, Gus appeared in the doorway, and with a grin said, "Are you ready to take a look?"

"Are you ready to start?" Andi's eyes opened in anticipation of the project that first came to mind in the library on Christmas night.

"Start? I had my guys start before I got on the plane to go to Florida," Gus exclaimed with a laugh. "Grab your coats. The best way to see this is from the main entrance."

They put on their coats and, exiting the kitchen door, they walked around to the front and went in the front door. Previously, when you stepped in the front door, you were immediately taken by the grandeur of the main staircase and the crystal chandelier. Now there was a bit of a hall to funnel you into the house. There was a dressing bench on each side of the hall with coat hooks, a bench to sit when you pulled on/off your boots, and a mirror to do that final check to your suit or dress when entering or exiting the building. The little entryway, only four feet long, matched the Victorian decor of the house perfectly. Even though it was newly constructed, it looks like it has always been there.

At the top of the grand staircase, they could see the twins running with Wonka barking and chasing them merrily, but they weren't running back and forth. They were going in one direction, running laps. Andi had to climb the stairs partially to see that the balcony had been completed all the way around. The new handrail perfectly matched the handrail that had been serving this house for the past century. The grandeur of the beautiful staircase was not diminished by the addition of the "mudroom" whose primary function was to provide support for the new balcony extension.

As Andi and Paul inspected the woodwork where the new flooring met the original flooring, the twins and Wonka roared past them, all giggles and barks. "Do you wonder if this is the reason why the original owners didn't extend the balcony all the way around?" Andi asked no one in particular.

"It seems likely," smiled Gus.

"That was John," said Paul as he hung up his phone, "they're on their way over with..." he gave the twins a sideways glance, "our new employee. I told John to bring her in the front door."

"And not the servant's entrance?" asked Gus with mock surprise.

"Well, just this once," answered Paul in a mock snobbish tone.

"Come on girls, we have company coming!" called Andi, as she corralled the twins and headed them down the stairs. The twins can race up the staircase, but coming down they take slow measured steps. Paul wasn't certain if it was because of their not being familiar with stairs or because their legs were so short. They made it to the bottom just in time to hear the stately doorbell ringing.

When Paul opened the door, the twin's eyes shot wide open. "YI!" they shouted and threw themselves at their governess like they hadn't seen her in months, and not the two hours it has actually been since they parted at the airport. For her part, Yi looked like a survivor of an Antarctic expedition. Clearly, the jacket she purchased in Florida wasn't able to withstand a Buffalo winter.

Andi tried to greet Yi, but no one could get a word in sideways over the chattering of the twins and Wonka's excited barking. While John, Gus, Macy, and Paul headed to the kitchen for coffee, Andi and Yi followed the twins up the stairs to show Yi her room. For her part, Yi was astounded by what little she has seen. "My God! This is a palace! How long does it take to clean this place?"

"I don't know," said Andi, "we have a service."

Yi gave Andi a lecherous grin. "I love it when you talk dirty like that."

"I said the same thing to Paul on my first day here."

As they reached the top of the stairs, Sandy said, "Come on! You have to go this way!" and the twins took off running to their left. Yi turned to follow but Andi held her back and they watched the twins run a full lap of the balcony ending up at Yi's new room, only feet from where Yi and Andi were standing at the head of the stairs.

Andi pointed out the new section of the balcony, "They're excited because they can run laps up here now. Come on, let's seen your new room."

Yi was in shock over the size of the room. "Oh my God! Honestly, I've had smaller apartments!" And when she found the twins hiding in the bathtub, she kicked off her shoes and joined them in the tub, as did Andi. "This is incredible! Would you mind if I, uh... entertained company?"

"We would appreciate it if you kept it down to one at a time."

"Can we take baths with Yi?" asked Madeline.

Before Yi could answer, Andi chimed in, "That's up to Miss Yi. This is her room. You can only come in here if she invites you. You have your own bathtub."

"It's not as cool as this one," moaned Sandy.

"This is the same tub that Poppa and I have, and you bathe in it all the time. Poppa still has to show Miss Yi how to work the shower."

"Work the shower?" asked Yi.

"Yeah," said Andi. "I can only remember a few pre-programed settings. The one down in the basement is MUCH cooler."

"Basement?"

Andi nodded. "There's a steam shower just off the gym."

"It's soooo cool!" added Sandy.

"Gym?"

"I like the steamy room at the cabins," said Madeline wisely.

"Steamy room at the cabins?" The last time Yi was at Paul's cabin, the second new cabin only had just gone up and was sitting empty as Gus finished the wiring and installed the attic water tank.

"Yeah, where our castle is going?" said Sandy. "didn't we tell you?"

Yi appeared to be overwhelmed. "I take it he did all this before you come along?"

Andi nodded again. "Paul was bored, so he did some upgrades before we met." They climbed out of the tub and helped the twins out. "To be honest, most of the house is as it was when he bought it. He had Gus upgrade the plumbing here and there and paint everything, then he added some gym equipment. He actually put his office on the third floor just so he didn't have to upset the floor plan on the first floor."

Yi opened the door to the walk-in closet and gasped, "I have had smaller bedrooms than this... Honestly, I have."

"You have two of those," said Andi as she showed Yi the second closet.

As they gave Yi a tour of the second floor, the Asian governess was impressed by the layout. "So, I take it that these terrorists' room is as far from mine as they can get and still be on the same floor? I like it."

"Hey!" shouted the twins in unison, then they returned to showing Yi all of their favorite toys.

With an admonishment to the twins to clean up their newly minted mess, Andi showed Yi the hall between the master suites and which cabinets would be hers, then led her down the rear staircase to the kitchen where Yi was astounded by the layout and the appliances. Like a soldier checking out his armaments, Yi inspected each appliance and utensil before a thorough check-over of the pantry, freezer, and refrigerator.

"This is incredible," said Yi as she sat down at the kitchen table and joined Andi, Macy, John, Gus and Paul for coffee. "Andi said that you haven't really modified the house much?"

"I did put in a hot tub outside, and an engine hoist in the garage," said Paul.

"Garage!" cried Andi, and she jumped up and disappeared into another room, then came back with a clipboard. "Is it heated out there?"

"Of course," answered Paul.

"Perfect," said Andi as she annotated her list, before returning it to wherever she had placed it.

"What was that?" asked Yi.

"Her christening list," answered Macy. "Paul married a scientist, and she wants to do this right."

"Christening list?"

"She wants to christen this house one hundred percent, every room and closet," said Macy as she sipped her coffee.

"Hopefully, her ancient husband will survive the effort," grinned John.

The friends sat around the kitchen table telling John and Gus of the adventures they had after they left with Lucy from Nisi Arcadia, catching the "Unicorn Fish", Daniella G's video being the best advertisement their yacht vacation company Tortuga could ever desire. "After our fishing adventure, we headed back to Jupiter and parked Andi's Dream and prepared her for our first customers who will be pulling out in a week," said Paul.

"We picked up the zodiac and played with that for two days straight, then spent an afternoon sailing on the Amalthea," said Andi. That perfect sunny afternoon under sail was a perfect way to end their vacation before heading back north. Andi leaned back in her chair and thought of that warm day, the boat sliding through the water. The creak of the rope and the flutter of the sail and the words of a song she hadn't heard in ages suddenly popped into her head.

Well, it's not far down to paradise, at least it's not for me.

And if the wind is right, you can sail away and find tranquility

Oh, the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see.

Believe me.

She smiled. For some reason, she always thought "The canvas can do miracles" had something to do with a painting. No painting could capture the peace she felt as she watched her girls cavort on deck and her man at the tiller masterfully pilot her up the inter-coastal waterway under sail. Suddenly she was back in her kitchen, Yi poking at her.

"Hey boss lady, it's getting late. I don't have a menu planned, so what do we do for dinner?"

"It's Friday, don't worry about it," smiled Andi, who then got up and headed upstairs. "I have to get you something!" When she came back, she held out a Buffalo Bills sweatshirt and a Buffalo Bills stocking cap to Yi.

"What's this?" asked the Asian Jacksonville Jaguars fan.

"Put it on. We're walking to get dinner, and that jacket you have is not near heavy enough."

It didn't take long for the group to walk the few blocks to Worzil's. The hardest part, other than getting Yi to pull on the sweatshirt, was to convince the twins that Wonka couldn't come with. And although Yi complained of the blizzard conditions, it was an enjoyable night, albeit chilly. "A bar? We're going to a bar for dinner?" asked Yi. "Things are starting to look up!"

"My dear," said John as he held the door open, "You are now going to learn about true Buffalo cuisine."

"Yeah, yeah. Wings and pizza," grumbled Yi as the warm air hit her upon entry into the crowded tavern.

"That's what we feed the tourists," said Paul as he walked up to the bar and got the attention of the middle-aged woman behind the bar. "We have eight tonight, Julissa."

"Wrong, you have nine. Lucy is already here; she's helping Ayato set up the table in the back room. How was the honeymoon, stud?"

"It had its ups and downs."

"I'll bet it did, hey sweeties!" Then she peeked over the bar. "Hey! Those are cool fish!" said Julissa to the twins as they showed off their sailfish stuffies.

"Miss Yi caught a real one just like this!" shouted Sandi.

Andi pulled out her phone and showed Julissa the picture taken of the girl anglers and their sailfish on Andi's Dream, pointing out all the folks in the picture. "Where's the guys?" Julissa asked as she scanned the picture.

"This fish was just about the girls. Paul and Stan stayed on the mezzanine and kept the twins entertained while we fished."

Just then, Lucy walked up behind Andi and gave her a warm hug, then led the group to the back area where the table was set up. Ayato Tanaka brightened up when he saw Yi enter the room. "Ah! Asian sister! Your presence has brightened my establishment and doubled the number of Asians in this village!"

"Is he for real?" Yi asked Macy.

"I'm the most real person in this room. The rest of you are figments of your own imaginations. Does everyone know what they want?"

Everyone nodded in assent except Yi, who said, "I'd like to see a menu, please."

"Of course, but I must tell you, this is Friday night. We have a special Friday's only menu." And with that, Ayato handed her a menu.

Yi opened the menu to find one side covered with a listing of beer and drinks, the other side simply gave her a choice of a fish fry, a salad, or a half fish fry and a side salad. "I'll try the half fish fry and salad." Without a word, Ayato turned on his heel and left, leaving Yi dumbfounded. "He didn't even ask how I wanted it cooked!" Then she realized everyone was staring at her. "What?"

"It's a fish fry," whispered Lucy.

"So, there's no option to get it grilled?"

"Not in Worzils on a Friday night," explained Paul. "This is the most Buffalo of Buffalo meals, even more Buffalo than a Beef on Weck."

"More Buffalo than Buffalo wings?"

"Buffalos don't have wings," Paul didn't miss a beat. "This area has a huge number of Roman Catholics, and for a long time they weren't allowed to eat meat on Friday except for fish. Well, if there's one thing we can do well in Buffalo, it's turn adversity into a party, thus was born the Friday Fish Fry Feast."

And feast it was! The plate placed before Yi was covered in mounds of potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, and French fries, crowned with a slab of beer battered haddock and a side of rye bread and butter. Yi's eyes literally bugged out at the sight of the "simple meal" placed before her. "Is this a half portion?" she whispered to Andi. Andi nodded and pointed to the table next to them where the diners there received full portions and to Yi it looked like they had received a full-size beer battered Mahi-Mahi filet. It was served on a huge oblong serving platter and hung over each end.

"How does everything look?" asked Ayato after everyone was served.

Everyone had praise for their dishes, except Yi, who held up a green leafy vegetable stem with small green fleurettes. "Uh... my garnish?"

Ayato looked mortified. "My apologies! You're a chef. You know how hard it is to get good kitchen help. If I told them once, I told them a thousand times, the broccoli rabe is for dessert!" While everyone at the table (except Yi) laughed, Ayato came up behind Yi and rubbed her shoulders.

"Just let me know who set me up and I promise I'll keep the bloodshed outside," she muttered.

"Chef Yi, you may have fallen among scoundrels, but none of them are devious enough to have pulled that off," said Ayato. "I recognized you the moment you walked through the door."

Yi turned to Ayato, "You recognized me?"

"Oh, hell yeah!" cried Ayato's wife Julissa as she joined them at the table. "He was like 'that's her! The girl from Chopped!' and I thought he was going to have a coronary. He watches Chopped every time it's on. He has your episode recorded."

Andi reached across the twins and nudged Yi on the shoulder. "You're a celebrity!"

Unsure if she should laugh or cry, Yi lowered her forehead to her hands and decided on laughing, and that's when she noticed the little fork intruding on her dinner plate and snag a small portion of coleslaw. Glancing to her right, she saw the intruder with coleslaw dressing on her face. "Salad thief!"

"It's yummy and look! I cleaned up my plate!" said Sandy the Salad Thief, and she showed off her plate that was spotless. It was spotless because Ayato had put empty plates in front of the twins.

"Me too!" chimed in Madeline. "Can we go play hockey now?"

"No air hockey until after supper," said Andi, as she took Madeline's clean plate and loaded food on to it from her own meal.

Yi took Sandy's plate and dished portions from her own plate on to it. "You need to eat before you can play hockey, momma's orders."

Just then, the familiar clink-clink of an air hockey puck being batted back and forth filled the room. "Aww, no fair!" moaned Sandy. "Now someone has the table, we'll never get to play." She stared at her plate and pouted.

"Eat!" And taking her own advice, Yi tried a bit of each salad and found them to be excellent, especially the coleslaw. No wonder why Sandy snagged it. Then she tried the fish, the part she worried about the most. She loves seafood of all types and varieties, and she constantly worries about getting a food aversion to seafood from a poorly prepared meal. A person can get a food aversion from one bad experience, a purely psychological reaction, but you'll never enjoy that meal again.

But she found the fish to be cooked perfectly - tender, moist, flavorful, and not greasy in the least. As far as Yi is concerned, deep frying is strictly for donuts, potatoes, and hot dogs, not fish. However, this was incredible. The beer batter was absolutely perfect: light, crispy, golden brown and delicious, and before she knew it, she had eaten the entire massive portion.

"Girl! Pace yourself!" chuckled Paul. "We have Friday every week. You can always come back for more."

"I couldn't help it, it was sooo good!" said Yi as she wiped away some crumbs with the corner of her napkin. "What does he serve for the rest of the week?"

"Bar munchies: small pizzas, chicken wings, subs, beef on weck..."

"What's a beef on weck?"

"Oh, you wouldn't want any of that," said John. "It's fresh sliced rare roast beef served hot with au jus on a kimmelweck. That's a hard roll covered with rock salt and caraway seeds. The traditional condiment is fresh horse radish so hot you could use it to light a cigarette. THAT is the real food of Buffalo."

Yi rolled her exquisite brown eyes at the thought. "That sounds so good! I wonder if I could get one now."

"Fille stupide!" said Macy with a smile. "Silly girl, of course not."

"Why not?"

"Because it's Friday!" chimed the whole table.

Yi learned that the people of Western New York take their fish fry as serious as they take their sports. Yes, their teams may not win The Big One (except for their magnificent Triple A baseball team, the Bisons) but they were proud of their teams. And just as they are loyal to their teams, they're loyal to their fish fry, and everybody has a favorite place to go for fish fry.

"It's been said that if you're downtown on a dark and lonely night," began Lucy, "and you're attacked by a couple of thugs, your best defense is to ask them where to get the best fish fry in town. You can make your getaway while they're arguing."

After everyone was finished with dinner, Auntie Lucy and Aunt Macy took Sandy and Madeline into the game room to play air hockey, and everyone came along to watch. A chair was set up at each end for the girls to stand on, and other than keeping the puck close enough for the girls to hit, Lucy and Macy's job was to keep the girls from falling off the chairs and retrieve the "sticks" when the twins got too enthusiastic with their shots.

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That evening, after the twins were tucked into their beds, Paul, Andi, and Yi relaxed in front of a fire in the parlor. Paul sat on the couch and Andi used his lap for a pillow while Yi curled up in the love seat. Both women were covered in blankets, and all three watched the flames dance on the logs in the fireplace. The only sound to be heard was the snap and crackle from the fire until "This house is incredible," said Yi softly.

"I can't wait to find out more about it," answered Andi.

"What do you mean?"

"She hasn't been here very long," said Paul. "We were married less than a week before we headed down to Florida. She spent almost as much time on the boat as she did in this house."

"Yeah," agreed Andi, "and before we were married, we were in the cabin for almost 5 days. Then when we got here, I spent most of my time going to the symposium and putting our wedding together."

After watching the flames dancing in the fireplace for a few moments, Yi asked, "What's on the plan for tomorrow?"

"Chickens and milk," answered Paul.

"Pardon?"

"Chickens and milk. The twins love this chore."

"It's actually eggs and milk," said Andi, seeing the confused look on Yi's face. "The girls like the chickens better than the eggs..."

"Unless I make them 'Hamlets' for breakfast," added Paul.

"So, what are these this chickens and eggs and milk thing?" asked Yi.

"We have a few chickens, so we run out to the cabin, feed the chickens, collect the eggs, and trade some eggs with a neighbor for fresh milk," Andi explained.

"I should do an inventory at the cabin, see if there's any dry goods or canned goods we need to stock up on. We probably want to move some firewood to the shed closest to the cabin also," added Paul.

"Good idea, I'm sure you weren't planning on 3 extra mouths to feed last time you stocked the cabin," said Andi. Then she smiled. "Is there a storm headed our way?"

"Next week, but it's going to be a little one, maybe a foot of snow at best."

Andi wriggled with excitement under her blanket, then reached up and pulled Paul down for a kiss. "I'll take a foot," she sighed after the kiss.

"You guys WANT a storm?" Yi was incredulous.

"We met in the worst blizzard I've ever seen," said Andi, as she snuggled down under the blanket. "The cabin is warm and dry. It's totally cozy!"

"You could die in a storm!" Yi insisted.

"You can die at sea, but that never stopped you."

"I know the risks at sea."

"Same thing here, besides someone has to take care of the chickens; we get quite a few eggs out of those girls."

"We'll have to haul up extra blankets and pillows too," said Paul, looking at Yi. "And if worse comes to worse, I have MREs and there's always fresh chicken."

The idea of fresh chicken was interesting to Yi. She loved fresh seafood going straight from the fileting knife to the iron skillet. Chicken has to be more flavorful if served fresh. That would only make sense, right? Then again, these are laying chickens. They will probably be tougher than birds that are raised to be roasters. It will have to be something like a soup or stew. "Do you have a few who are no longer producing?"

"Two or three, problem is that the twins have named one of them."

"Is it Pecky?" asked Andi.

"No, it's Chook-Chook," said Paul sadly. Chook-Chook was the girls' favorite chicken. The twins would have happily eaten Pecky Noodle Soup in retaliation for all the pokes and nips they've received from that cantankerous bird, but Chook-Chook was about as sweet to them as a chicken can get and always gave up her eggs without a struggle. She was a young bird, so her age wasn't an issue. Maybe the lack of daylight? That will cut back on egg production. "I'll try a few things with them..." then he clicked his fingers. "Protein! I forgot to boost the protein in their winter feed!" He grabbed his phone and tapped out a reminder to himself to get some high protein chicken feed from the feed store in the morning.

Andi kissed his inner thigh and whispered, "I could use some protein, too."

"I heard that," Yi said.

"We could arrange some protein for your menu too," said Paul softly as Andi pulled herself up and sat on his lap.

"I can hear everything you say," Yi said again.

"I wish the flames were slower," said Andi.

"Slower?" asked Yi.

"Yeah, at the cabin the flames are slow, like in slow motion. It's real dreamy looking."

"We could do that here," said Paul. "We could put a fireplace insert in, but you would lose the scent and most of the sound of the fire."

Andi thought back to the fire they had for Christmas. He was burning white birch, which smelled so sweet, it was like an exotic perfume. And those white logs looked so good in the white parlor fireplace. "I don't know if a big old iron stove would look good in this fireplace," said Andi with a frown.

"I'll get some measurements of this fireplace in the morning, and we'll swing by the Stove & Spa store and see what is available," said Paul as he added this to his To Do list. "Thank goodness it's not as big as the fireplace in the library."

"Library? The town library?" asked Yi, who falling asleep.

"Our library," said Andi, "or as Gus calls it, the Polka Parlor." In response, Yi yawned and wordlessly got up and headed upstairs to her room. Andi watched her climb the stairs, then she snuggled into her husband's lap and they kissed gently. "Did we christen this room yet?"

"Yes, we did, on Christmas night with a house full of guests," grinned Paul.

"Oh yeah, how are we going to top that?" she pondered.

After a quick, warm shower, the newlyweds retired to their bed. The queen size bed that Paul had been sleeping on for over 10 years was replaced by a "California King" just before they headed to Florida, and it, like the walk-in closets and bathtub, remains unchristened. Andi wanted to correct that oversight, but she was asleep by the time Paul carried her in his arms from the shower to the bed.

-=-=-=-=-

Captain Paul L. Jarecki, newly minted flight surgeon of the 429th Electronic Combat Squadron, kissed his wife Andi and their 6 month old twin girls Sandy and Madeline goodbye, then stepped off the porch, fired up his pickup truck and headed off to base. Andi had seen him in a flight suit in the past, but today he was wearing it "for real", and that had her worried.

It was hot and dry already. The sun was just barely above the horizon and Andi could tell that the heat was going to be brutal. The concrete porch was still warm against her feet from yesterday's scorcher, and today was supposed to be hotter. It was going to be another day of clinging to the swamp-cooler in the kitchen. "Might as well enjoy the morning while I still can," she said to herself, and she eased herself into the rocking chair on the porch and watched the tiny city of Clovis NM wake up to another oven-hot day.

The girls didn't even wake when their daddy kissed them goodbye. They just cooed a little and returned to their slumber and continued to sleep in her arms as she rocked and watched the shadows start to shorten. Not a breath of wind stirred the wilting leaves in the trees, which was both a curse and a blessing. A curse because there was no cooling breeze, but a blessing because the city of Clovis is ringed by six huge cattle feed lots and a puff of wind from any direction brings that aroma into town. Paul once told her that it was the smell of money, but you can call it what you want. It's still the stench of cow shit.

"Hey neighbor!" It was their landlady, Nadia, who had just sent her own husband off to work, to his job as the manager of the local branch of the Wells Fargo bank. Because of a shortage of housing on base, Paul and Andi rented a tiny two-bedroom house from Mark and Nadia Lemke. The house was next to Mark and Nadia's house and the two couples became fast friends. Ever since the birth of the girls, Nadia had become almost a permanent fixture in the Jarecki household. Her own children had grown and moved away, but Nadia insisted she "needs to stay in practice for the eventual grandchildren". "Why don't you hand me one of those babies while you get me a cup of coffee?" smiled Nadia.

And Andi did just that. Sandy didn't even notice that she was shifted to the arms of "Grandma Nadia" while her mom got up and prepared the coffee. Once the two women were settled in their rockers with their coffee and babies, Nadia turned to Andi. "You seem pretty wound up this morning. Something wrong?"

"Paul is flying this morning," she said with a frown.

"Isn't he supposed to fly?"

Andi took a sip of coffee; her hand was visibly shaking. Finally, she swallowed the hot brew. "He's a doctor. They're supposed to bring the patients to him. He's not supposed to become a patient."

"Then why is he flying?"

"So, he can identify with what his patients are going through."

Nadia thought for a moment, then asked, "What's wrong with that concept?"

"I'm a doctor too. You don't see me stuffing cotton balls in my nose and mouth to see what my asthma patients go through."

Nadia shrugged. She wanted to say, "Maybe it wouldn't hurt," but Andi was clearly agitated and didn't need a push. Instead, she asked, "When is he supposed to go up?"

The distraught wife looked at her watch. "Pretty soon, he said it was the 'first go,' whatever that is." Even though the base was miles away, Andi was sure she could hear the screaming and shrieking of the aircraft engines as they cranked up to fly.

-=-=-=-=-

The F-111 was a massive, slab sided bird whose sheer size and complexity made it a marvel to look at even when it was standing still. Andi hated it; it was loud and fast and had more moving parts than an entire factory. Paul had told her it could fly at Mach 2 at 50 feet off the ground. When it had its wings spread wide, it could haul more bombs than three WWII vintage B-24 bombers and drop them with pinpoint accuracy. With its wings swept back, it became a rocket. A high-speed missile with men inside, blasting its way to target at 1,400 mph while dodging between hillsides by computer control.

Paul's squadron flew the EF-111A, a specially modified version of the F-111. Its weapons systems were gone, and the bomb bay was filled with radar jamming devices that could jam radar guided anti-aircraft missiles. But it also was the oldest 111 flying. It had older engines, and they had problems with tailpipe fires and flame outs when the USAF started using JP-8. Andi hated that thing, and like many of the maintenance people she called the One Eleven the "Wonder Lemon".

Andi had been out to the flight line several times before the twins were born to see the facilities and, like many airmen, Andi "fell in loathe" with Canon AFB. Hot, dry, dusty, the housing was the worst in the military, she almost felt blessed when they were told there wasn't room for them on base. Paul hated it because, mostly, it was a training base. They had started their careers with the Strategic Air Command in actual combat units, but after SAC was gone, Paul said the fight went out of the Air Force. Finally came the day they got orders to Canon AFB in the middle of nowhere. North Dakota was so much better than this hole! There's a purity and cleanliness at 40 degrees below zero that Canon AFB could use.

After being there at Canon AFB for a few months, Andi and Paul had a quick discussion, and both decided that the best course of action would be for Paul to volunteer for an isolated remote assignment. As an officer, he was going to have to go on at least one isolated remote, but if he volunteered for one, he was guaranteed a base of preference after that. They decided he would go to Kunsan Air Base in Korea with a follow-on assignment to Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs. Andi would be near home and the twins could spend time with their grandmother. After that, maybe some place nice, like a long tour in Italy or Germany. They could relax and travel and when their overseas requirements were fulfilled, they could return stateside in time for the girls to start elementary school.

He just has to survive this year...

As Andi and Nadia talked on the front porch, it started getting hot and the twins woke up fussy. The sounds from the base were getting louder, so Andi imagined the planes were taking off. The EF-111 has a deep throaty roar when it kicks in afterburners that can be heard over a dozen miles away. As they stood to go inside, Nadia looked up to the western sky and said, "Ain't that odd... I ain't never seen them do that before."

Andi looked up to where Nadia was looking and saw a long white line of vapor in the sky, almost like a contrail or sky-writing, but thicker, and much lower. A Raven was dumping fuel, a sure sign of an in-flight emergency. The white line became a line of flame which ended in a large black cloud that was rapidly expanding and suddenly she knew...

-=-=-=-=-

Paul was jarred from his sleep by Andi's cries of "No! No! No!" She was huddled up in the fetal position, her hands balled into fists covering her eyes, and her entire body shook with her sobs.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He tried to pull her hands away from her face, but she fought back hard, so instead he held her close and cuddled her shuddering little body.

Soon she woke up and simply said, "You're here!" Her hands explored his face and shoulders as she sobbed. "You're ok! It wasn't you!" Paul turned on his bedside light and Andi blinked and looked around. "Oh God! It was so real!"

"What was so real, honey?"

"My dream! It was so awful! I dreamed that you were on active duty when we married, and you were stationed at Canon Air Force Base..."

"That place is the thing of nightmares, that is for sure and for certain."

"No, honey listen," and Andi told him the details of her dream before they faded away; of kissing him goodbye in the morning, of talking to Nadia of their plans, of watching the white line of vapor streaking across the sky, and finally the explosion which jarred her awake.

When she was finished relating her dream, he hugged her tight, kissed her worries away, and assured her that there were thousands of young women scattered across the planet, married to fliers, who all had the same type of dream. "I'm out now. I've been retired for a decade. They can't call me back ever again..."

Soon she was asleep, his protective arms around her. But sleep came slowly to Paul, except for the fact that they were married to each other, let alone knew each other. She had it right. She would have been in pre-med on the morning of his first flight as a flight surgeon in an EF-111, but she had all the details right, the little house he rented downtown, the hot dry dusty morning of his first flight, the inflight emergency, how they dumped fuel causing a long white line in the sky, and then the fire. How Andi knew all of this worried him...

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Yi woke up to what she thought was bright and early, but a quick inventory of the rooms showed she was the last one up. The twins' bedroom door was wide open, and the beds were empty. Since no one was battering her door down requesting breakfast, she went to the bathing area of her suite and experimented with the shower. Then, refreshed from one of the most interesting showers she had ever taken (alone), she dressed and wandered downstairs and found no one in the parlor or kitchen.

However, she heard music coming from the basement, so she headed down there to find the twins rocking out with Wonka to an old music video on one of the largest TVs she had ever seen. The girls were strutting back and forth to ZZ Top's "Legs" with their nighties hiked up to show their tiny legs as they pranced and awkwardly danced in time with the hard driving rhythms. They didn't seem to notice Yi as she searched for a remote control to turn down the noise on the gigantic screen TV, and when she turned down the volume, the twins suddenly realized she was there. They crossed their arms and pouted, "Hey!"

"It too loud! You damage your ears!" Too late, Yi realized she was parroting exactly what her mother had told her in her youth. She even said it with her mom's Korean accent.

"Momma and poppa don't mind if we play music loud," insisted Sandy.

"Yeah, and they won't let us in the steamy shower either!" pouted Madeline.

"It's mommy and daddy time!" they both sneered.

"Mommy and daddy time is very important," said Yi, "if you let them have their mommy and daddy time, they will be less grouchy."

"We're hungry," Sandy continued to pout. "That makes me grouchy."

"Come on, you two, let's go upstairs and have some French toast. I'll try to make it look like a frog." Yi started back up the stairs, but she noticed too late that she was leading no one. The twins whipped off their nighties and ran giggling through a door Yi hadn't noticed near the rear of the media room. She dashed back down and into the room the twins had ducked into. There she found a pair of treadmills, a pair of exercise bikes, and a bunch of free weights. This was obviously the gym that had been mentioned in the past. Beyond the exercise equipment was a doorway covered by a curtain that was still swinging from the passing of a small child.

Yi ducked through the curtain and found herself in a shower room changing area, a long narrow room with a wooden bench and clothes hooks on the left wall, the back wall had shelves with towels and various soaps and shampoos, and on the other wall were windows and a glass door looking into a spacious steam room/shower. Andi and Paul were in the dressing area. They were just finishing pulling on their clothes.

"Uh, sorry. Didn't mean to barge in," apologized Yi. "I was looking for the twins."

Paul smiled and gestured to the shower room. "You just missed them; they're dancing in the rain."

Sure enough, looking through the windows, Yi could see the girls, still in their panties, dancing in a gentle rain shower of the fanciest shower she had ever seen. She opened the glass door and looked in; the water was coming down from the nearly solid looking ceiling. She saw the panels on the wall that would allow water to spray out horizontally if desired, and there were panels on the floor that would spray up if desired. The two station shower also had wooden benches along the wall beneath the glass windows.

The twins noticed Yi looking at them and started calling "Come on in!" then Madeline ran over to a control panel and pushed a button. "It's steamy too!"

Andi pushed past Yi and forcefully said, "What did we tell you? No Steam!"

"But mom!"

"No, you're too little! It can really and truly cook you. Remember the lobsters Yi cooked for us on the boat? Just like that. You can only do steam if Poppa or I set it up for you. Now... OUT!"

Defeated, the twins slowly marched out of the shower room, where Paul and Andi waited with towels to dry them off. As he dried off Madeline, Paul looked up to Yi and said, "might as well enjoy the steam. It's going to run for another 10 minutes."

"I think I'll do that," she answered, and as soon as Paul left the changing room, she stripped and entered the steam bath.

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After a quick breakfast, Andi and the twins took Wonka to the cabin while Paul took Yi to the Johnson's Feed Mill to get the high protein winter feed for the chickens and other supplies. For her part, Yi was fascinated with the quaint, old time layout of the store. There was even a pot belly stove surrounded by a few wooden chairs where the locals could meet and stay warm during the winter squalls. Almost everything Yi had experienced in her life was new and modern, even Paul's century and a half year old house was filled with modern devices and brought up to date in his years of updates and remodeling. But this beautiful old store was Yi's first exposure to life of 100 years ago.

As the pretty Asian slowly walked through the store, an old fellow came up behind her. "Can I help you find anything, ma'am?"

"Huh? Oh no, it's just I've never been here before and it's like a museum!"

"I hope not," he said with a grin. "we aim to sell these works of art. Museums kind of frown on that."

Yi smiled, "I was thinking of a history museum. It's like this stuff has been stored here for ages, like this," she held up a washboard.

"That's brand new," he said, "they still make 'em and we still sell 'em. Just not as many as we used to, but folk use them for crafting a lot now. Just because it's an old design, it doesn't mean it doesn't have a use."

"And what's this?" she asked, pointing to what she thought was the world's weirdest wheelbarrow. The wheel was a huge, spoked affair with no rubber tire, and the bowl was tiny and high sided.

"That's a seed planter. You put the seeds in the hopper and as you push it along your furrow the seeds drop out of the hopper on to the wheel, and the wheel pushes them into the dirt," he showed her how the little blades behind the wheel close the furrow over the seeds.

"That will work on things like corn and radishes?"

"It works on everything but potatoes."

She almost asked why when she remembered potatoes are not started from seed, they're started from the eye of a cut up potato. A large chunk of potato would clearly not go through this machine. "You almost got me," she grinned and wagged a finger at him. As she chatted with the old man, she discovered he was Archie Johnson and had run the store for 65 years. He was retired now. His son and his grandson, who recently got out of the Army, were running the store, but he comes in to "help the young folk out."

All the while they were talking, Yi noticed a young man who wouldn't take his eyes off of her, and the more he stared, the more uncomfortable she got, and she never realized that she was staring at him too. She thanked Archie for the tour and decided she was going to give that young man a piece of her mind. A haughty "Take a picture, it will last longer!" should do it. She was used to horny men staring at her in Florida, stares brought on by her tiny bikini and her well-tuned, well-tanned body. Here she was in a parka that was clearly too big for her, so what was he staring at? "Probably never seen an Asian before," she muttered to herself.

That question ate at her as she got closer. She soon lost her resolve and walked past him, staring down at the floor ahead of her, her stomach tied up in knots. She probably would have kept walking right to the back wall of the store where she would have had to pretend to be interested in rat traps, but Paul found her in time. "There you are," he caught her arm, "let's get our feed and head out." He had a small box of what looked like machine parts under his arm.

"'k," she mumbled and, keeping her eyes on the floor, they headed toward the front of the store and that young man.

"Hey Kenny!" Paul called out, "can you get that sack of feed for me?"

"I sure can, doc," said the young man.

Yi felt it coming, but before she could bolt for the door, Paul's grip on her arm tightened and he said, "Kenny Johnson, this is Yi-jin Carlson. She's our twin's new governess." Both mumbled a quick hi, but not satisfied, Paul tried to egg them on a bit. "Imagine that! You both have Norwegian names."

"Yeah, but my mom is Irish," muttered Kenny.

"My mom is Korean," said Yi, not looking up.

Her admission seemed to loosen up Kenny a little. "God, I loved Korea! Doc and I spent time on the same base over there..." his voice trailed off. Then, as if to hide his embarrassment, he effortlessly swung the 50 lbs sack of chicken feed up on his shoulder and headed for the door.

Yi suddenly had an image of him scooping her off the ground and carrying her off to do whatever he wanted with her, and that thought gave her tingles in some interesting places.

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At the cabin, Andi was having some problems. First, the lock on the gate across the driveway was frozen, so it took a while of jimmying with the key to get it open. Then she couldn't get the gate open because of the snow, but she remembered Paul had thrown a shovel in the trunk, so she dug until she could get the gate open most of the way. Then Wonka hopped out of the car and ran off up the driveway, which made the twins cry.

"He's going to get lost!" wailed Sandy.

"Ok, you two, he's older than you are, and he's been coming up here almost every week of his life. He knows where he can go."

"You sure?" asked a skeptical Madeline.

"I'm sure," said Andi as she navigated up the snow covered drive. "Look, there he is on the picnic table waiting for us." And sure enough, Wonka was standing proudly on the picnic table, under the patio roof of the cabin. The look on his face clearly said, "Glad you could make it. What took you so long?"

Her last problem was the worst of all. Opening the cabin, they found it cold and dusty. There was still plenty of that wonderful smelling birch in the woodbox, so Andi packed a few sheets of newsprint in the stove, added a few logs, then set fire to the paper and closed the door and went into the kitchen to see what needed to be done in there. A few moments later, Madeline came into the kitchen and announced that they couldn't play with their toys because it was too foggy.

"Foggy? It's not foggy, it's a little cloudy..." then the smell hit her. Looking past the twins, she saw the main cabin was filling up with smoke. "Out! everybody out!"

"I need my coat," complained Sandy.

"I'll get your coat, now get out!" She herded the girls out and grabbed their coats off of the coat hooks.

"I don't have my boots!" said Madeline. Andi hoisted the girls onto the picnic table and handed them their coats and headed back into the cabin. A few moments later, Wonka emerged from the smoke and joined the girls on the table.

Inside, Andi grabbed the fire extinguisher and began a teary-eyed search for the source of the smoke, which turned out to be the wood stove. The stove was still cool to the touch and smoke was oozing out of the air intakes into the room. Then she noticed that the ornate knob halfway up the chimney pipe was horizontal, telling her that the flue was closed. She had forgotten to open the flue. Andi reached up, turned the knob ninety degrees and immediately the smoke stopped pouring out of the intakes, and soon flames could be seen inside the firebox which told her that the smoke was now escaping out of the chimney and fresh air was being drawn into the firebox. She sighed and opened all the cabin doors and windows, including the windows up in the loft.

When Paul and Yi pulled up in the Ranger, they found the twins still sitting on the picnic table. They were eating blueberry pop-tarts and were feeding the corners without frosting to Wonka. Every cabin window was wide open, even though the breeze had freshened up and there was a hint of snow in the air. "Hi poppa!" they called as Paul got out of the truck.

"What's up kiddos? Why are you out here in the cold?" asked Paul.

"It's foggy inside," said Sandy around a mouthful of Pop Tart.

"Yeah, and stinky too," agreed Madeline.

"I'll go see if the coast is clear. Why don't you two pull your boots on and show Yi your chickens?"

"OK!" they scrambled to pull their boots on. Sandy was going to hop down with her boots on the wrong feet, but Paul shook his head and pulled her boots off her feet and handed them back to her. She got it right on a second attempt.

"Come on, Yi!" called Madeline, "I'll show you my unfavorite chicken, Pecky. You can pet her, but you have to be quick."

As she was being pulled to the barn by the twins, Yi looked over her shoulder toward Paul and mouthed the words "Help me!"

Inside the cabin, Paul found Andi upstairs in the loft sitting on the full size bed looking completely frazzled. She looked up at Paul and almost burst into tears. In a wavering voice, she finally said, "I almost burned down your cabin."

"Let me guess," he sat down next to her and put his arm around her and pulled her in tight. "You forgot to open the flue?" She pressed the side of her face to his chest and wordlessly nodded her head. "It happens. I still do it, and I built this thing. I did it just before we met. Didn't you smell the smoke the first time you came here?"

"No," she whispered, "all I could smell was the beef stew, and you." She thought for a moment and added, "And Wonka. I was in the bathroom. I didn't notice the smoke until it filled the cabin."

"You did everything right, you opened the flue, you kept the firebox door shut, and you aired out the cabin." He held her close and finally asked, "Are you ok baby? First that dream last night, now this. You seem overwhelmed by something."

"I don't know... maybe..." she shrugged then looked up at her man. "I've never been on vacation before."

"Really?"

"Really. This is the first vacation I've ever taken since I finished pre-med. And what happens? I take some time off to visit a friend and I end up married, and in the Caribbean, and I haven't been home yet."

"Let me see if I can put you at ease." Paul smiled and gently freed himself from her clutches. "Give me 2 minutes..." and he quickly ducked down the stairs. Andi heard him shuffling around downstairs, then finally he called out, "Ok, come on down, and be careful."

Andi headed down the stairs and had to be incredibly careful because it was so dark. She finally realized what the noise he made was. He had closed all the shutters. The interior of the cabin was as dark as night. Also, he had stoked up the fire getting the flames to dance, and he was lying on the couch watching the fire, like that night over a month ago when she came downstairs and they sat on the couch and talked and fell in love. Whatever had been agitating her for the past day suddenly fled; she laid down with him and pulled the plaid blanket (our blanket!) over them. Watching the flames slowly dancing in the wood stove, she purred her satisfaction. "You know just how to make me happy."

They kissed gently and let the world slip away, until Paul said, "We're going to have to find something else to do in the summer to relax you. It gets pretty hot and muggy up here."

"I'm sure we can think of something," she said as she kissed his neck. "I have a few ideas about how we can put that pond to use."

"We'll have to set up a pond schedule. John and Macy spend the summer scaring the fish in the pond," said Paul.

Andi thought for a long time, then said, "Where are we going to put up the other cabin for them?"

"Why?"

"Macy and I were talking. If we build the other cabin on the other side of us, we'd have to walk across the driveway to get there. Now if we put it on this side of the road, we could connect all the cabins into one big, long house. When the weather gets bad, we could see each other and stay out of the snow, or rain, or whatever else you have up here."

"John and I were thinking we can build something like this," smiled Paul. He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and showed the four cabins arranged at right angles to each other, a picnic pavilion in the central area where the families could gather outside.

"I like that," sighed Andi as she turned her back to Paul and snuggled back tight against him. In response, he held her close and cupped her breast as they watched the flames dance in the wood stove. "This is so perfect," she whispered and slowly drifted off to sleep, as did Paul.

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"Why are the window shutters all closed?" asked Yi as they approached the cabin. Yi was carrying a basket that contained just over a dozen eggs and her hand had several scratches from chickens that were less than happy to meet her.

"Sshhhhh!" Madeline held a finger up to her lips. "Momma and poppa are kissing!" she whispered loudly.

"Kissy, kissy, kissy," said Sandy as she eased the main door open quietly.

The interior of the cabin was warm and dark. The only light came from the fire in the wood stove and a narrow light leak from one shutter. They found Paul and Andi blissfully napping on the couch, snuggled under their plaid blanket. Yi found herself transfixed by the slowly dancing flames in the stove; their motion muted by the restricted flow of oxygen to them. She heard Andi speak of the slow flames but didn't understand what she meant, and now Yi knows, and would love to see this kind of flame in the parlor fireplace too.

A fit of giggling brought Yi out of her reverie, the twins had pulled off their coats and boots and crawled onto the couch and pulled the foot of their parents blanket over them and were trying to entice Wonka to jump up on the couch with them. Their wriggling around woke Andi, who looked down at the other end of the couch and said, "Hey babies! Did you get a lot of eggs?"

"Uh, huh! And Pecky didn't peck Yi neither!" smiled Sandy.

"I find that hard to believe," mumbled Paul, his face hidden by Andi's hair as he nuzzled her neck. Andi giggled and rolled her eyes as Paul found that particularly sensitive spot to plant kisses. That, and she had to agree with him, Pecky pecks everybody. The only way that Yi could avoid getting pecked was by avoiding Pecky's roost completely, eggs or no.

Yi started opening the shutters. "No, she got me, and it hurt a lot."

Madeline stood in front of Yi, crossed her arms, and huffed. "But there was no blood," she said as she glared up at her governess. "Momma says, 'If there's no blood, it's tattling,' right?"

Sandy came up beside Madeline and struck the same pose. "Right!"

"And that's an excellent rule," said Yi as she opened the window shutter to the right of the wood stove. There are two shutters for every window, exterior storm shutters and interior security shutters. Paul had only closed the interior shutters today, but back in December during the big storm, he had closed the exterior shutters. Turning to Paul, Yi asked, "What do we have to do today, boss?"

"Clean out the chicken roosts and burn the old nasty straw, scrape the ice off of the driveway, dig back the snow drift out by the front gate, plow out the drive to the hayloft, collect empty gas cans and take them to Morton's Corners and refill them, haul that chicken feed up to the coop, and feed the birds."

"Whew! Sounds like you're going to be busy." Yi sat down on a kitchen chair and put her feet up on another chair. "I'll make sure the girls stay out of your hair."

"We have a few tasks for you too," said Andi. "Familiarize yourself with the kitchen, including all the appliances, check the food stocks and generate a shopping list. Keep in mind, we don't buy bread, eggs, milk, beef, pork, or c - h - i - c - k - e - n. We provide it all ourselves."

"Really?"

"We barter eggs for milk, and we have a quarter of beef and a half pig in the freezer back in the village," said Paul as he reluctantly gave up his wife's delightful neck and pulled on his boots.

"And what about the bread?" asked Yi.

"There's a bread machine here and one in the village. I hope your bread is as good as Paul's," smiled Andi.

Paul stood, pulled on his coat and hat, and held his hand out to Andi. "Come my princess, today we make a woman out of you and teach you to drive the Ford 8N."

"Wooo!" grinned Andi with a smile that said, "I'm going to have fun!" as Paul led her out of the cabin.

The Ford 8N was the old gray and red tractor Paul had used to rescue Andi and the twins back in December when they first met. It was purchased new back in 1951 by the previous owners of Paul's farm and it has spent its whole life resting in Paul's barn and working in Paul's field. Years ago, it was a solid agricultural workhorse, plowing fields and harvesting crops, but now that the fields are slowly returning to forest land, the old gray Ford is now primarily a lawn mower and a snowplow, with some agricultural work on Paul and John's big garden. And now with the twins, its newer tasking will be to provide horsepower for hayrides.

Paul loved that old tractor, it reminds him of a peaceful time, back when he first bought the property and he spent a month rebuilding the motor and cleaning up the implements that comes with the tractor - the side cutter, the dump scoop, the brush hog, the three bottom plow, the disk cultivator, the drag plow, and of course his favorite - the hay wagon. The only reason he likes the hay wagon so much is because it is a John Deere 963 wagon. He spent a year cleaning and repainting the wagon until it looks almost new and pulls like a dream. But Paul dearly wants a John Deere tractor. Not just any old John Deere, but an "unstyled" two-cylinder John Deere, either a model A or model B, and spoked wheels for the main tires would be awesome.

"Your chariot awaits, m'lady," Paul said with a flourish as he opened the side door of the main barn, revealing the old Ford in all her glory.

"Why not the Kubota?" Andi asked.

"This old girl is actually better at scraping the ice off the driveway with that drag plow than the Kubota." The ice Paul was referring to was from their vehicles driving over the snow as they came up nearly every day to check on the chickens. Their coming and going eventually compresses the snow on the driveway to ice. "Besides," he patted the big gray fender next to the driver's seat, "I think once you get the hang of this old girl, you may like her better than the Kubota. It just sounds right; it doesn't have a hydraulic transmission, so there's no whining and shrieking like the Kubota has when you work it."

"Ok, let's give it a whirl," said Andi as she scrambled up to the seat. Once seated, she gave the seat an exploratory bounce and her smile showed it was acceptably comfortable. She mashed her feet down on the pedals. "I got it, clutch on the left, brake and gas on the right."

"Close but not quite, that's clutch on the left, then on the right it's left brake and right brake."

"Where's the gas pedal?" Andi was getting confused.

"There isn't one, this lever here..."

"Not the turn signals?"

"No," he smiled, "this is the hand throttle. Here's the choke, the starter, the PTO, that lever down there is your three-point hitch up and down, hand brake, and this one is the gearshift lever." He went on explaining the theory of operation until Andi felt comfortable with the idea of not having an automatic transmission, fuel injection, and Bluetooth stereo. She put the tractor in neutral, pushed down on the clutch, set the throttle, pulled out the choke and hit the starter button. It coughed to life, and she eased in the choke slowly as the engine warmed up. Soon she felt courageous enough to put it in gear and ease out the clutch, but when she did, the tractor jumped, and it startled her, causing her foot to come off the clutch, which caused the motor to stall. It started easier on the second try, and this time she eased out the clutch gently, ready for that jump. This time, the motor bogged down a little as it moved, but it didn't stall. She eased out of the barn with a proud grin and followed Paul's hand directions to back up to the drag plow. He coupled up the three-point hitch and stepped aside as Andi lifted the blade and set out to clear the ice from the driveway.

Hearing the familiar putt-putt-putt of the Ford tractor, Sandy and Madeline dragged Yi out on to the patio to show her the tractor and were surprised at what they saw. "Mommy's driving the good tractor!"

"That's a gray tractor, your Aunt Macy said that the orange tractor is the good tractor," said Yi, who was bored to tears on Andi's Dream listening to tractor conversations.

"No, that's the good tractor. Poppa gave us a ride with that tractor," said Sandy.

"A hay ride! With Thundersnow!" agreed Madeline.

"Thundersnow? I think you guys have been out in the sun too long. Let's go finish our inventory and make a menu because your funny momma and your goofy poppa want to spend the storm here with us."

"Maybe we'll have Thundersnow," said Sandy hopefully.

"And a steamy bath!" said Madeline, who loves pushing the steam button.

"Steam bath? Now I know you're both crazy," said Yi as she herded her charges into the cabin.

Meanwhile, Paul topped off the Kubota and the snowmobile with gas from his metal 5 gallon jerry cans and put the empty cans into the back of the Ranger, then drove around the back of the main barn and headed up to the henhouse. The side of the barn away from the cabin is built into a hillside so you can drive up to the hayloft where the henhouse is located. Once up there, he unloaded the bag of high protein feed and hauled it into the henhouse and then set about cleaning the roosts.

Once the roosts were clean, the chickens fed and watered, and the old straw taken out and burned, Paul hopped in the Ranger and headed out toward the driveway. He met up with Andi at the gate as she cleaned the snow away from the gate, allowing it to open easier. She hopped off the tractor and walked up to the truck. "Where you headed?"

"Going to Morton's Corners to fill up the gas cans, wanna go with?"

"Sure!" Andi ran back to the tractor and moved it out of the way, then shut it off, then hopped in the Ranger. She's heard of Morton's Corners but has never been there and she had wondered what a town named "Morton's Corners" looks like. They took Trevette road to 39 and turned west on that highway until they came to a historical marker on the road and turned there. "It looks kind of desolate out here," said Andi, looking at a lonely farmhouse as they drove past.

"Wait for summer with the trees in full leaf, or autumn when the maples are in color. It's beautiful," Paul said. "This is winter in the snow belt, the whole world just kind of hunkers down and waits it out," said Paul as he pulled up to the gas pump in front of an old-fashioned General Store.

Morton's corners isn't just small, it's Tiny with a capitol T. Other than a few houses, all that Andi could see was a tractor repair business, an Agway Farm & Garden center, a church, and the general store/gas station they were now in front of. Andi's eyes grew wide as she saw the items displayed in the store's front window. "I'm going in," she announced, and she hopped out of the truck.

Paul just smiled, tooted the horn twice to let the proprietor know he was there, then hopped out of the truck and went around back to open up the jerry cans. By the time he finished filling up the cans and truck with unleaded, it was snowing, a dry, blustery, windy snow. He entered the store and the old-fashioned bell on the door announced his entrance with a cheery tingle.

"Be right with you Doc," called a voice from the back of the store. "Have some coffee. I just made it today."

"Will do," he called as he found a Styrofoam coffee cup and poured himself coffee from a tin percolator that was atop the beautiful Victorian parlor stove, then sat down in a rocking chair and leafed through a well-worn Field & Stream magazine. "Hey Elmer, I hope that lady isn't giving you any trouble."

"No, but she is helping me clear these shelves," called out the storekeeper. As he said that, Elmer and Andi appeared from the back of the shop, her arms loaded with her treasures and a huge smile adorning her pretty face.

"I found so many awesome things," said Andi, as she laid her treasures on the counter. "I found everything we need for our cookies and look!" she held up a rolling pin with deep groves cut into it and what looked like paint stirring sticks with Norse patterns painted on the handles. "lefse!"

"Oh, lefse," said Paul, not comprehending.

"He doesn't get it," she said to Elmer.

The old man smiled. "He doesn't have any Viking blood in him."

"Wait a minute, he's been to North Dakota, he knows lefse!" she pointed at him with the rolling pin.

"All I know about lefse is that if you make a burrito with one, using thanksgiving leftovers at the O club, the waitress gets upset."

She shook her head and held up what looked like a waffle maker and a wooden cone with a handle. "Krumkake!" Then she showed him a stack of tiny, fluted tart pans "Sandbakkels!" Then she held up what looked like very ornate branding irons, "Rosettes!"

He simply shrugged at the mention of each item. She gave him a well humored look of admonishment. "And I thought you could cook."

"I guess not. I suppose it's a good thing that I just hired a cook."

"You have daughters now. You need to learn how to make cookies with them," she stretched up on her toes and gave him a kiss.

"Daughters?" Elmer looked shocked. "Did I miss something here, Doc?"

"I guess so, Elmer. Remember that storm we had early last month?" Paul's gaze never left Andi's beautiful brown eyes.

"Oh, you betcha, me and the missus were stuck in here nearly a week. What about it?"

"The town of Concord police asked if I could go help a traveler stuck in the ditch at Thirty Nine and Trevette, so I chained up the 8N, hooked up the hay wagon and went and rescued them."

When Paul had paused, Andi smiled and said, "Tell Mr. Ingvist the rest."

"And... I kept her. We got married on Christmas Eve, and I picked up a set of twin girls as part of the deal."

Elmer leaned back and shouted through the door into the back room, "Ho-lee smokes! Did you hear that, ma? Doc Jarecki went and got married!"

A silver-haired woman, clearly in her 70s like Elmer, stepped through the curtains into the main store. "That was you? Cindy Lou told me about a couple that got married over at your brother's church on Christmas Eve, said the bride wore red!"

"Well, I couldn't have my 5-year-old daughters as my bridesmaids and still wear white, now could I?" Andi pulled out her phone and brought up a picture of the entire wedding party and showed it to Elmer and his wife.

"Oh, my!" said the lady, "When Cindy Lou told me 'the bride wore red' I couldn't imagine, but this is beautiful! And Pastor Macy matching in green, so Christmassy! I was expecting sequins and a mini skirt like a real hoochie-coochie dancer."

At that Andi laughed so loud she snorted, "I had a white shawl that was covered with rhinestones and sequins. Does that count?"

"There you go. Great minds think alike. I'm Elinore, by the way." She extended her hand to Andi. "I go by Ellie."

"That should be easy for me to remember. My Nana Olson's name is Elinore. I'm Adrianna Rob... ah... Jarecki," she suddenly burst out giggling at having to correct herself.

"It's ok dearie, you're still getting used to your new life," smiled Ellie. She's been Elinore Ingvist for over 50 years but still remembers getting used to her new name.

"Well, professionally I'm still Doctor Adrianna Roberts, but in real life I'm Andi Jarecki."

"Doc Jarecki caught himself a good one. She knows what all this is for," said Elmer, pointing to Andi's purchases.

"Oh my! You make all this? Lefse, and Sandbakkels, and Krumkake, and Rosettes? Uf da!"

"Oh ja, Nana Olson taught me to make all of those, and I even like lutefisk," said Andi.

"Now that's going a little too far," said Elmer as he punched her purchases into their antique cash register.

Ellie sighed, "I haven't made lefsa in years."

"Come on over to the house, we're going to have a lefsa making party a week before Thanksgiving. We have to teach the girl's governess how to make all these goodies," said Andi, as Paul paid for her purchases and the gas.

"I'll be there! And I'll bring some of Emerling's spuds," said Ellie. "It's just not the holidays without lefse and krumkake."

They said their goodbyes, and as Paul stepped out the door, he leaned back in and said, "Fourth of July, you going to make it this year?"

"We'll be there!" assured Elmer, which got a thumbs up from Paul.

As they got into the Ranger, Andi asked, "What are Emerling spuds?"

"Emerling's is a potato farm on the north end of Trevette road, and their potatoes are incredible. The problem is that their entire crop goes to Wise for potato chips and Ruth's Chris steak house for baking. They're just that good. Ellie's sister married an Emerling years ago, so she has a way to get a few sacks of 'taters come autumn."

"I thought the best potatoes came from Idaho."

"No, Idaho just has the best advertising budget."

"And what was that about the fourth of July?"

"John and I throw a party. We have a potluck picnic, a big bonfire, and we have some fireworks."

When they got back to the farm, Andi hopped out of the truck and climbed back on the tractor. A Ford 8N tractor isn't so big that someone actually has to climb up on it, unless the operator is as short as Andi. As she went back to scraping ice, Paul headed back to the barn and unloaded the jerry cans, locking them up in a secure, grounded locker that was a safe 100 feet from the barn.

By the time he had finished that up, Andi arrived on the tractor. Paul gestured for her to stop, and when she did, he clambered up on the tractor and, bracing his feet on the transmission, he sat back against the main wheel fender. "Plow where you see the tire tracks from my truck," he instructed her, and she did, following those tracks behind the barn, then up the earthen ramp and into the hayloft, where he had her shut it down.

Once the engine shut down and the chickens in the henhouse stopped their outraged clucking, Andi dropped the plow, then hopped down. "I love this tractor," she said as she patted the left fender. "I see what you mean about it. It just feels more powerful than the Kubota. Probably because it's so much bigger."

"Actually, the Kubota has 10 more horsepower and a much more complex hydraulic system. I got the Kubota for the hydraulics, for the front-end loader and the backhoe. But I just love the old Ford for mowing and pulling the hay wagon."

Andi looked around. "I don't think I've ever been up here before," she said finally.

"Probably not," agreed Paul. "The stairs from the workshop come up in what is now the henhouse, you have to come out through the door to get out here. It's the door with the sign 'No chickens Beyond This Point' in big red letters. I haven't brought the girls out here for one exceptionally good reason," and he led her around a wooden wall that divided the loft almost completely in half. Behind that wall was an enormous stack of hay bales, a perfect soft mountain stretching up into the darkness, a cliff of bailed hay just waiting for a child to climb and leap from into an inviting pile of split open bales at the base.

Andi looked at it and pictured the twins swarming over the mountain of hay, climbing and leaping over and over until they were exhausted, or injured, or both. "Very wise decision," she agreed. "Maybe we should check out that haystack, to see if it's safe to roll in." She snuggled up to her husband and cupped his crotch, giving him a playful squeeze, but to her surprise, he winced in pain. "What's the matter?"

"Testicular vasocongestion," he gasped.

"What?"

"Last night, we did a lot of teasing and touching, but we went to sleep. Then again, this morning in the steam room we were almost there, but... blue balls happens."

Andi smiled. She didn't think 50 year old men got blue balls, then again, as a middle-aged mom, she thought she no longer could cause such a painful reaction in men. She unbuckled his belt as she stared into his deep blue eyes. "Let me fix that for you, daddy" and she sank to her knees. His cock sprang out hard and throbbing and she gobbled his cock the moment she saw it.

Her mouth closed over the big swollen head, and she ran her tongue round and around, which elicited a few rumbles of delight from him. But they were nothing compared to the groaning that came from Paul as her mouth rose and fell over his cock, sucking, swallowing. He felt the head of his cock entering her throat as she plunged her mouth over his cock, over and over.

It didn't take him long. She could feel him get rock hard in her mouth. He finally grabbed her head and groaned as her hand stroked up and down the shaft of his cock, urging the cum out of him. His orgasm was on the both of them before they realized what happened. Her fist slid up and down his length as she held his cock head in her mouth and her tongue slathered around on the sensitive underside of his cock.

It wasn't enough. Paul felt caught on a precipice he couldn't escape from. "I'm sorry honey, but I just have to..." and he pulled Andi to her feet, pushed her into the hay pile and pulled down her jeans and panties. He pressed her knees apart and desperately line his cock up with her pussy. With a firm push, he slid full length into her and began fucking like a madman. Andi shrieked with delight and wrapped her arms around his neck. With her feet still tangled in her jeans and panties, she was completely helpless as he fucked her with savage need.

"Fuck me! Cum in me!" Andi nearly screamed. "Fucking knock me up! Use my cunt! Give it to me!"

They both came in savage fury, trying to fuck each other senseless and eventually, as he pumped the last remains of his semen into her pussy, they slumped into the hay and relaxed. Finally, Paul kissed Andi and when their lips parted she whispered, "I can't believe it took me over a month to get that out of you."

"Huh?"

Andi leaned over her husband and said, "You're a perfect gentleman, always sweet and concerned and gentle. But sometimes a girl needs a wild man... like today."

Hand in hand, Andi and Paul entered the cabin, huge smiles on their sated faces, and they were greeted by the twins peeking over the back of the couch singing the new song that Yi just taught them:

Momma and Poppa sitting in a tree

K - I - S - S - I - N - G

First comes love, then comes marriage

Then comes brother in a baby carriage

"Who taught you that song?" Andi asked the giggling twins.

"Miss Yi did," said Sandy, smiling so much she could barely get the words out.

"They came up with their own last line," insisted Yi, "I tried to teach them the way I learned 'Then comes momma with a baby carriage' but they insisted on changing 'momma with' to 'brother in' that carriage."

"They're pretty insistent on having a brother," said Paul as he sat down at the table and pulled Andi into his lap. "Did they have a conference you couldn't understand when they changed the words you taught them?"

"Yep, what do you call it, Twinbabble™?" Yi had seen their conversations with their private language a few times on Andi's Dream. "By the way, did Macy ever get through to you?"

"Macy?" Andi's face went blank. Then realization dawned on her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket with a sheepish grin and noticed several missed calls. "Sorry, we were... preoccupied."

Yi placed three cups of coffee on the table, then sat next to the newlyweds and pulled several pieces of hay out of Andi's hair. "Christening the hayloft? No apology necessary."

Andi looked at her phone and smiled. She hit the speed dial and soon she heard her sister-in-law's beautiful lilting French Canadian accent, "Bonjour chère belle-soeur. Have you christened the entire barn?"

"I take it your niece's governess gave you that idea?" Andi glared at Yi, who didn't even try to look ashamed. She just smiled and sipped her coffee.

"In Canada Français we would say Si cette grange bascule, ne viens pas frapper."

"Which means...?"

"If this barn's a rockin', don't come a knockin'," she said it in the worst excuse for a southern accent Andi had ever heard.

"Well, just the hayloft so far, ummm... twice," said Andi, still looking at Yi, who raised her coffee cup in a toast to her friend/employer. "What do you need, dear?"

"John and I were wondering if you were planning to stay up there for the storm next week and if you were, could we join you?"

Andi was torn. She saw the cabin as her and John's private retreat, their love nest, and she didn't want to share it. It was where they met, where their love blossomed, where they consummated their marriage. But it was probably more John and Macy's cabin than it was hers. They helped Paul build it and spent many, many nights in the cabin since. She must have struggled with her answer for a while because Macy whispered, "It is ok ma chère soeur, it is your..."

"No!" interrupted Andi. "of course we love to have you, but we have dibs on the couch."

"Incroyable. It's so much warmer upstairs."

"It's going to be crowded up there with Yi, the twins, and Wonka."

Macy laughed, "we will put two cots together and use curtains for intimité. John and I have a faire un pari, a wager on when the girls will drive Yi out of her nice soft bed into a tiny cot."

Andi had the speaker phone on so Yi heard the details of Macy and John's bet and called out "It ain't gonna happen!"

"Let's do coffee after church tomorrow," said Andi, "and we can get our shopping list set up."

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Yi didn't make it to church with her employers, and they never made church attendance a requirement. However, even if Yi had wanted to attend church, she was not in condition to go. At some point early in the evening, Paul had mentioned a combination of coffee, hot chocolate, and Peppermint Schnapps, which Yi tried and enjoyed a lot. Yi rolled out of bed about an hour after the Jarecki family left. Yi tried to steam the alcohol out of her system in the basement, and she baked cinnamon rolls, which would be ready in time for everyone when they arrived home from church. She was in the garage taking inventory of the huge upright freezer when they returned from church. She was fully dressed, but rather than put on a coat to go out into the garage, she pulled on her heavy bathrobe, which turned out to be warmer than any of the jackets she brought from Florida.

Andi pulled her car up to the garage and emerged, then ducked into the back seat of her Taurus and released the twins from their child seats. But Paul was nowhere to be seen. At the sound of the twins being released from the car, Wonka burst out of the doggie-door and scampered down the steps like a young pup eager to spend time with his girls. The twins immediately started making snowballs and tossing them as high into the air as they could for Wonka to catch, then the three of them ran off into the backyard, the girls following Wonka's tracks through the snow.

As Andi collected hats, mittens, sippy cups, and coloring projects from Sunday School, out of the back seat of her car, Yi asked, "Where's Doctor Paul?"

"Oh, he bought a new truck, one he said was more appropriate for the farm. He'll be home with it shortly."

"What is he going to do with the Ranger?" Yi loved the four door, coffee brown, small pickup.

Andi tossed Yi a set of keys. "We're going to trade it for something appropriate for a larger family. Here, you drive it until then," and she walked into the house with her arms loaded with the twins' possessions. Yi was nearly in shock as she stared at the key fob in her hand, and as soon as the spell allowed her to do so, she sprinted back to the garage to inspect her new toy.

The features were incredible, four-wheel drive, 10 speed transmission, Waze navigation, Alexa interface, the list of features went on and on, and when she loaded up the Ford app on her cell phone, she found she could remotely lock, unlock, and start it. She could spend all day playing in this truck and never have to leave the driveway. The keyless ignition was just too cool for words, and the features went spiraling upward from there.

When she exited the garage, still dressed in her bathrobe and boots, she found a 1978 Ford F-150 half-ton pickup truck in the driveway. It was in great shape for its age, but everything about it just screamed "antique" to Yi. From the five amber clearance lights on the cab roof, to the camper/cap on the back, to the 102 inch whip CB antenna, it was a relic of a bygone era. She even bet that it had a standard transmission. The twins were upset that there was a seat in the covered bed and from their complaining attitudes, Yi guessed that someone had just told them they can't ride in the camper. Andi was looking at it with a look of disapproval on her face, too. As Yi got closer, she heard their discussion.

"I know I have to learn, but I really don't know if I can reach the pedals," said Andi.

"If you want to drive my car when I put it back on the road, you will have to drive this first," insisted Paul. "Let's take it around the block and I'll show you some advantages in this old girl has over the Ranger."

"Ok," said Andi with a big sigh, and she turned to Yi. "Can you watch the munchkins for a couple of minutes while Paul shows me his new toy?"

"Sure, I didn't know you guys were into antiques."

Turning her back to Paul, Andi gestured toward him and mouthed the words "I married one," then she stepped up to the passenger door and tried to get in, but she couldn't, her legs were too short for the step up into the cab. "I can't get in," she said sadly.

As Paul walked over to the passenger side, he said, "Maybe this old antique can help you."

"I can't believe you heard that."

"Heard what?" He grinned and gave Yi a wink, then helped Andi in the cab of his new acquisition. Then, patting the fender and hood, he walked back to the driver's side and swung in with ease. He fired it up and eased it out onto the street.

"Poppa's so mean," whined Sandy. "He got a neat truck and won't let us ride in it."

"It doesn't have a back seat, so he can't put your b... safety seats in it." Yi almost said, 'baby seats,' which would have set Sandy off.

"It has a seat in the back," insisted Madeline. "Mister Ernie showed us."

"There's no heater back there, you'll get awful cold."

"We got our coats on," pouted Sandy.

"There's no radio back there either, no Baby Shark songs."

For a moment Yi thought the girls were going to agree with her, but after a long pause Madeline said, "We know the words, we can sing it."

Before Yi could respond to that statement, the big white pickup truck pulled into the driveway, and Yi saw Andi was almost sitting on Paul's lap with his arm around her. It's been a long time since Yi had seen a vehicle with a front bench seat, and she was far too young to have ever taken advantage of that design. The blissful smile on Andi's cute face showed Yi that her boss approved of the arrangement, and the twins didn't miss the kiss their momma gave their poppa after he shut down the truck. They walked back to the house, singing the song that Yi taught them at the cabin.

John and Macy arrived not long after, and the family gathered in the kitchen for fresh coffee and the cinnamon rolls that Yi baked earlier in the morning. "Where's Mister Ernie?" asked John as he looked around, expecting to see Ernie and Mary Kraft. "we saw his truck in the driveway."

"That's my truck now," said Paul as he set out plates and coffee cups for his brother and sister-in-law.

"You got Ernie to sell you The Great White Whale?" John was shocked. Ernie loves that truck.

"Ernie needs a new hip and refuses to admit it, shifting that four-on-the-floor got to be too painful so I got him a special 'Old Friends' discount on a new Maverick but only if he'd trade in his old F-150, which I immediately bought from my dealership."

"Sweet!" John then held his coat out to Yi, "Be a dear and hang this up for me."

"No." Yi never looked up from her conversation with Macy, who sat down next to her.

"No?"

Yi finally leaned back and stared him in the eye. "You heard me. I'm not your nanny, I'm not your maid, and I sure ain't your momma, and you're tracking snow all over my clean kitchen floor. Grab a mop!"

Macy whooped with laughter and gave Yi a high five "Vas-y meuf!" (You go, girl!)

"Guess she told you," said Paul as he sat down next to Andi.

"I don't have to come here for this kind of abuse," muttered John as he mopped the footprints from the floor. "I can get it in the comfort of my own home."

"Oh, come sit down. I'll even let you bring me some coffee," scolded Yi.

John brought the coffee carafe to the table and topped off everyone's cup before sitting down. "I can't believe Ernie gave up his truck."

"Momma's kissy truck," giggled Sandy, which made Madeline giggle.

Andi saw what was happening. "Please don't start..."

The twins started singing at the top of their lungs, "MOMMA AND POPPA SITTING IN A TREE..."

"Thank you so much for teaching them this Yi," groaned Paul.

"K - I - S - S - I - N - G"

"It was no problem, really," said Yi as she sipped her coffee.

"FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE..."

"Take the batteries out," groaned John as he covered his ears.

"THEN COMES BROTHER IN A BABY CARRIAGE!"

"That was so amusant," laughed Macy, "so plein d'esprit." Macy clearly had never heard the children's song before.

"I can assure you darling, it's neither amusing nor witty, not when you grow up hearing eight-year-old girls singing it over and over," said John with a glance at the giggling twins.

Paul leaned over to John and quietly asked, "Who was it that the girls always used to harass you about? Was it Crystal?"

"Crystal Tailor? Oh lord no, I would have loved to spend some time kissing Crystal. It was Alicia, Alicia Cuomo." John shuddered at the thought.

"The one who looked like she was run over by an ugly truck? Sorry, dude."

Meanwhile Macy looked confused, and Andi tried to explain it to her. "That's an old rope skipping song that little girls sing to keep time with their jump ropes." But this appeared to confuse Macy even more.

"I don't know jumping ropes," she shrugged.

"They don't have jump ropes in Canada?" asked Yi, amazed.

Macy didn't answer. She merely looked embarrassed. Finally, John said, "Yes, they do have jump ropes in Canada, but not for little black girls."

Yi was shocked. "I thought Canada was such a friendly country."

"No, Canada is a polite country. Friendly differs completely from polite," said Macy softly. "There are many ways of telling people to go to hell yet remain polite, and Canada is exceptionally good at all of them. And I wasn't a little black girl, I was a very tall black girl, a full head taller than the next tallest girl. Taller than all the boys, so my opportunities to skip rope and sing songs with other young girls were nil."

Andi was shocked. She had heard Macy talk about her unhappiness with the modeling industry, but like many Americans, she thought Canada was a land of peace and love and free healthcare. Sandy and Madeline appeared at Macy's side and peered up at their new aunt. "It's ok Aunt Macy," said Madeline in a sorrowful voice as she patted Macy's leg, "you can skip rope with us all you want."

"Uh huh!" affirmed Sandy with an emphatic nod of her head, "and you can teach us how."

Macy looked down at her nieces, their blond heads bobbing up and down like little bobblehead dolls. "Ok, but I was hoping that you would teach me how. I don't know how to do it. Maybe your mommy can teach the three of us."

Andi just shrugged. "I don't know how either. I didn't do a lot of girly stuff. I was into softball and bowling."

Yi looked around the table. "Seriously? I'm the only female here who knows how to skip rope?"

Just then Lucy's voice could be heard from the mudroom, "I know how to skip rope!"

The twin's sad faces lit up with they heard her voice, and they dove under the table, scrambled underneath it, then dashed into the mudroom shouting "Auntie Lucy!" Soon Lucy and Gus emerged from the mudroom, each carrying an excitedly chattering 5 year old girl. The twins weren't sure what skipping rope really entailed, but if it included singing at the top of their lungs, they were all for it.

"She's got a professional grade jump rope," grinned Gus. "it's a marvel of engineering. Ball bearings in the handles, non-slip grips, Kevlar reinforced rope, it's even got Bluetooth, it's got everything!"

"It's for training," explained Lucy. "I use it a couple of times a week."

"Does it sing songs when you skip rope?" asked Sandy as she hugged Lucy.

"No, I'll need some little girls to help me with that."

Madeline's eyes popped open wide and her expression took on an aura of someone who had just had the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything pop into her head. "We know a song!" she gasped as she leaned far out in Gus's arms. "It's momma and poppa's kissy truck song!"

"Yeah!" chimed in Sandy, whose head bobbed up and down furiously.

"ENOUGH SINGING TODAY." Andi put on the Mom Voice of Doom. Once the twins were startled into abeyance, she continued more calmly. "You can sing it when you're skipping rope, or when you're alone with Miss Yi, but this weekend that's enough."

"Ohhh Kayyy," moaned the disappointed girls. Then Sandy looked up, "Can we sing it at croaky?"

"When God lets daddy and me have a baby, yes, you can sing it at karaoke." On a couple of occasions, Paul and Andi have taken the twins to karaoke at The Cricket House and the girls loved it, they wanted to get up and sing but they were disappointed to find out that the Cricket House karaoke machine didn't have the Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.

"Yay!" The girls squirmed to the floor and started tapping their thumbs and index fingers together like little snapping mouths and sang at the top of their lungs "Bay-bee shark doo doo doo doo doo doo, bay-bee shark doo doo doo doo doo doo..."

"ENOUGH!" The Mom Voice of Doom came out, but it came from Macy this time, surprising even John. The twins stopped their singing in mid doo and stared at their aunt in wide-eyed surprise. "Take Wonka outside and play!"

Without a word, the twins dashed for the mudroom and scrambled into their coats, boots, and mittens and were out the door in record time. Andi smiled at Macy and said, "You're going to be a great mom someday." And with that, the friends gathered around the table and discussed their plans for the upcoming storm. Only in Western New York could a potentially life-threatening blizzard be considered a chance to throw a party.

"Gus, Lucy, do you folks care to join us?" asked Paul.

"I'll be there," said Lucy. "I was on duty for the last three storms, so I get to sit this one out. I want to do some Nordic skiing and maybe some snow shoeing, and Andi says your place is perfect for some cross country skiing."

Gus wasn't as enthusiastic. "I don't know. I've got a few contracts open that I'm way behind on. If I can get out of my driveway, I'm going to have to put in time on those jobs."

"If you can't get out, are you going to sit alone at home?" asked Andi, concerned for her friend.

"Oh, heck no," grinned Gus, "I'll fire up my snowmobile and come visit you."

"Will you have room for all of us?" asked Lucy.

"Plenty of room!" smiled Andi. "There're four cots and a bed upstairs, so you, Gus, John, Macy, and Yi will all have a bed, while Paul and I will be downstairs on the couch keeping the fire stoked." She added a saucy wag of her eyebrows on that last part.

"What about the twins?" asked Yi.

Paul studied his coffee cup. "Traditionally, they end up in bed with us, regardless of where we put them down for the night." Andi nodded in agreement.

"Ok then," Yi laid her clipboard on the table, "I drew out a menu that should take us to Friday when AccuWeather says this will all be over. I'll just modify it to add two people."

Paul picked up the clipboard and looked over the menu and the shopping list. "Close, but..." and he handed the clipboard to John, who looked at the menu.

"I see what you mean," said John, who handed the menu to Macy.

Macy only glanced at it for a second then with a sigh and "Quel dommage, it's a pity," she handed it to Andi, who looked at the menu intently.

"Guys, it's not her fault. No one told her about the stew," Andi pleaded.

"What stew?" asked a thoroughly confused Yi.

"No stooo?" shrieked Sandy from the mudroom.

"Then I'm not going!" yelled Madeline as she, her sister, and Wonka emerged from the mudroom soaked to the skin.

Andi and Yi sprang up and started pealing the soaking wet coats off of the little girls. "What happened to you? Did you fall in the hot tub?"

"It's raining," grinned Sandy.

"How long were you out in the rain?" asked Yi as she pulled off Madeline's soaked Sunday school clothes.

Madeline shrugged. "Till it stopped being fun."

Andi was obviously flustered at her daughter's lack of common sense. "What is with you two? You never would have done this in Denver."

"We didn't have a dog in Denver," pouted Sandy. "Wonka likes the rain!"

"It don't rain in Denver!" added a shivering Madeline, "and we had to go up the mountains to find snow." Her protests continued all the way up the stairs as Andi and Yi led the twins up to a warm bath to warm their cold little bodies up.

Not long later the twins came downstairs in fresh flannel nightgowns, their skin glowing pink from the hot bath that Andi and Yi gave them, hoping to stave off a cold. "Poppa!" they called as they saw Paul appear at the bottom of the grand staircase. "Guess what!"

"Now don't tell me... let me guess..." Paul put on a show of intense concentration. "You took a bath?"

"Yeah! In our own tub!" cried Madeline.

"It's so much better than your big old clunky tub," called Sandy. "we can get in and out of our tub all by ourselves!"

"Yes they can," sighed an exhausted-looking Yi as she trudged down the stairs behind them. Both she and Andi were carrying the girl's soaked clothing. "They got away from me twice."

"You were alive in the 70s," said Andi with a smile. "Was streaking really a thing?"

"Sure was, in fact you could say I was practically born naked," said Paul as he took the wet clothing from Andi and Yi. "We have a warm fire in the library, I'll take Frick and Frack, and we'll deal with this laundry."

"Thank you darling," said Andi, as she gave Paul a kiss that Yi thought contained more passion than the situation called for.

"We have to go to the library now?" asked Yi.

"Our library," corrected Andi, then seeing the confused look on Yi's face, she asked, "Haven't you seen the library yet?"

"You have a library?"

"I guess you haven't seen it. How did we miss that on the grand tour?"

Andi led Yi into the 50s living room on their way to the Library and Yi stopped. "Wait, I haven't seen this room before either. This room is so... so..."

"So, Paul?"

"Yeah, but he's not near old enough for this... stuff."

"I thought that too," said Andi. "I almost pitched the entire room away and claimed it for my office until John stopped me." She stroked her hand along the ugly 1940s style sofa. "It's the living room they grew up with. They were dirt poor and living in Tiorunda, that's a really run down area, but John said it made their mother happy because they survived the bad times while living there on furniture they bought as newlyweds. So, Paul made this living room for his mom, who spent her last days here. I can't ask him to give this up. And the girls like to watch their cartoons in here."

"This old thing works?" Yi eyed the wooden console TV with its bent rabbit ears antenna suspiciously.

"Looks can be deceiving," said Andi, as she picked up a remote control. With the click of a button, the front of the TV opened up, revealing that it was hiding a modern flat screen television mounted inside. As if by magic, the twins appeared. Wordlessly, each grabbed a pillow off of the couch, tossed them on the floor, then laid on the floor as Andi selected one of their favorite reading programs.

"I can totally dig the vibe in here," said Yi. "If you need an office, you can use one of my closets,"

"Don't let Paul hear you say that you have a closet available, or he'll start making plans to put a train layout in there or something. Come on, let me show you the library." Andi led Yi into the adjoining library.

Yi looked in awe at the carved bookshelves and ornate fireplace. Comfortable chairs had been pulled up around the fire where John, Macy, Lucy, and Gus sat, and the coffee was set up on a side table. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling, and Yi noticed some shelves were filled with fake books to give an appearance of a well-stocked reading room. A series of lower shelves were cleared out for Sandy and Madeline, for their collection currently in Denver. Already several tomes by Dr. Seuss were populating a "twin level" shelf with Green Eggs and Ham taking up a place of honor between two ornate bookends, one a locomotive, one a caboose, ready to be called to action at the whim of a twin. "Is this their favorite book?" Yi asked.

"It's their favorite Poppa book. Even though they can read it themselves, they like the way he reads it to them," Andi answered.

"They can read Green Eggs and Ham?" Yi was astonished. "They're not in kindergarten yet!"

"They can read most of these books, but they've been slacking. The two of them don't like reading and didn't do much reading at all in Florida, so they are going to have to get back on schedule. They prefer math to reading." Andi grabbed several books and placed them on an empty shelf. "That should be enough for our storm party."

"Wow," said Yi with sincere admiration. "You'd make a great Asian mom."

"It all starts with reading. Once you love that, there's nothing that will hold you back. Couple that with math and the world is yours," said Andi, as she added a second-grade level math book to the stack.

"You sound like my mom." Yi continued to peruse the shelves and noticed a lot of historical studies of military, railroads, and a lot of farm equipment manuals. "Paul reads like my dad reads, too. What do these guys have against the twenty-first century?"

"Gotta know where you've been before you can see where you're going," said Paul as he entered the library from the kitchen. "Where are the kidlets?" He was holding a Minnie Mouse and a Daisy Duck mug, both filled with hot chocolate.

Andi walked up to Paul and stood close enough to feel his warmth. "In the living room watching Reading Roundup, wanna go mess around?" she looked up at him with a sly grin.

"You know we have a room full of guests..."

"They can wait their turn." Andi stood up on tiptoes and gave her husband a kiss while Yi rolled her eyes and took the hot chocolate out of Paul's hands.

"Get a room guys!" she muttered as she carried off the hot chocolate.

"This is a room," grinned Paul as they broke their kiss. "And we haven't checked this one off yet."

"I got plans for this room," sighed Andi, as she led him over to the fireplace. "It's got this awesome Goth vibe to it; it gives me some interesting ideas."

"We can go if you guys have plans," grinned Gus.

"Oh, my plans need a dark and stormy night, thunder, lightning, drippy candles, and silk rope," grinned Andi, and she sat down on Paul's lap as he reclined in a wing-back chair.

John covered his ears. "I can't hear this! La la la la la!"

"Maybe we should go," laughed Gus as he made to stand up.

"No! I want to hear this!" grinned Lucy, "I've known Andi for years and this is the closest to kinky I've ever heard her get!"

"I would like to hear about Yi," said Macy and she leaned forward conspiratorially.

"What about Yi?" asked Andi. "She's about five foot eight, Korean-American, too damn skinny, especially for a chef. Have you ever seen a skinny chef? Should we trust a skinny chef?"

"No mes amis, I mean Kenny Johnson!" Macy insisted in a stage whisper. She looked over at the living room door to make sure Yi was still engrossed with the twins. "He came up to me after church today and asked me a dozen questions about Yi. Is she going to be here for long? Is she seeing someone? Is she into white boys? I think he's got a thing for her."

"No!" gasped Andi.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that" said Paul.

"What did you forget to mention?" Andi sounded pretty indignant.

"When we went to the feed store to pick up the chicken feed yesterday, Kenny and Yi were kind of checking each other out. I tried to get them to talk to each other, but they were both stuttering and stammering like they were at their first freshman dance."

"And you didn't think to mention this?" Andi was shocked at her husband's lack of candor in affairs of other people's hearts.

"I can picture Kenny getting all tongue tied," said John, "But Yi? She must have it bad."

"We have to take Yi shopping for several items this afternoon. Do they have anything we might need at the feed store?" asked Macy, "Kenny is working there this afternoon."

"Shoes," said Paul as he sipped his coffee. "You need some too," he added, giving Andi a squeeze.

"I have all kinds of shoes, and when we get back from Denver, you're going to be buried in shoes," Andi insisted.

"You need touring shoes for cross country skiing. I've got three pairs of skis, so you and Yi can ski with us, but you're going to need shoes. Might as well get some new snowshoes while you're there. Mine are too big for you. Yi will need touring shoes, snowshoes, and a good pair of mukluks. Those hiking shoes of hers won't keep her feet warm," said Paul. "Get her a proper parka as well. You should be able to get those all at the feed store."

"Touring shoes?" asked Andi.

"They're like hiking shoes, but they clip into the bindings of cross-country skis," explained Lucy. "What kind of bindings do you have on your skis?"

"Turnamic, so they will both need an NNN style boot."

"Nice," smiled Lucy, "are you coming with us Macy?"

"I have all the Nordic gear I need; I am Canadien, no? but I want to see Kenny and Yi," smiled Macy as she rose and gathered her purse.

Andi stood, then bent and kissed Paul. "Can you get the girls packed for the cabin?"

"As long as we have socks, I'm good to go," he replied. The twins went through more socks than he could believe, and their socks turn up in the oddest places throughout the house. They showed up in strange places on Andi's Dream, and the girls rarely wore socks when they were on the yacht. "How about if I set out the clothes, then you can double check my work before we pack their backpacks?"

"You are such a wise man," she smiled and leaned in for another kiss.

<><><><><> ֎ <><><><><>

Unlike most of Andi's shopping trips, this one didn't leave Springville's village limits unless you count a trip to the Walmart on the edge of town. There, they plied Yi and Andi with heavy socks, thermal underwear, and ski glasses. For Yi, they got a decent parka, a ski jacket, scarf, several hats, mittens, and gloves. For the twins, they found warm socks, thermal underwear, and Mini Mouse boots. They also stocked up on snacks and soft drinks, which Yi, for the life of her, couldn't bring herself to call "pop" like everyone else in Western New York.

As Yi grabbed a case of bottled water, Andi stopped her. "We don't need that."

"If we're going to be drinking wine all week, we don't have enough," huffed Yi.

"Oh, mon cher ami," reassured Macy, "for water consummation we shall be drinking only the best! Natural spring water from the vallée de Zoar."

"Sore Valley?" asked Yi.

"Zoar Valley," corrected Lucy, "it's named after an ancient biblical oasis."

"Oui, from Genesis," nodded Macy. "John and Paul fill our twenty liter water bottles from a spring not far from the cabin."

"It's good water," agreed Andi. "The girls won't drink anything but 'Poppa's water' now. We had to convince them that the bottled water in Florida came from the same place that Poppa gets his water." When Lucy looked shocked at Andi's subterfuge, Andi continued, "Well... same planet."

From there they traveled to Cheap Chollies liquor store and stocked up on wine and peppermint schnapps, then on to the real reason for the trip, Johnson's Feed Mill. Yi was noticeably quiet as they entered the store. Macy led them back to a corner that Andi and Yi hadn't noticed before and found it to be filled with sports equipment, much of it geared to the Nordic forms of winter sports. Shoes and boots, cross-country skis and snowshoes decorated the walls and shelves, and in a locked glass case some of the weirdest looking rifles that Andi and Yi had ever seen.

"Oh... My... God..." gasped Lucy, "this is an Anschütz 1827F biathlon rifle. It's Olympic quality. It's got to be worth four grand."

"Four thousand, five hundred, seventy-five dollars and ninety-five cents," announced Archie Johnson as he stepped into the sporting good section, the thumping of his cane on the wooden floor announcing his arrival. "But since you're here with my favorite munchkin, let's say forty-five seventy even."

"Munchkin?" demanded Andi. She knew Archie from church, and they would speak together occasionally, but munchkin? "Where did that come from?"

"Can I hold the Anschütz?" Lucy's voice was trembling with the desire to hold the highly accurate weapon.

Archie unlocked the gun cabinet and handed the Anschütz 1827F Comfort competition rifle to Lucy with a stern "No drooling!" then turned to Andi, "The term 'Munchkin' came from our pastor's sister-in-law."

Andi's mind raced going through familial relations with everyone she knew at church until she realized that she was the pastor's sister-in-law. "Ok, how and when did this happen?"

"At your wedding," smiled Archie, "Pastor Macy introduced me to you at the reception and was trying to tell me that you and Paul had the shortest engagement of any bride they had on their altar. I don't hear so good, so I thought she said the shortest bride, sooooo..." he smiled again, "I asked you if you represented the Lollypop Guild."

Andi suddenly blushed. "Did I say yes?" she asked sheepishly. It was such a whirlwind evening that she couldn't remember what she said to anyone, mostly.

"Oui," said Macy, trying hard not to laugh. "I did not really understand until..."

"Until we watched the Wizard of Oz on the boat!" Andi swatted Macy on the arm. "No wonder why you were laughing so hard!"

"The Lollypop Guild is a funny scene," said Lucy, who was laughing now that she realized why Macy was laughing so hard at the Lollypop Guild scene in the Wizard of Oz.

"You're not helping!" said Andi with a swat at her oldest friend. Lucy just giggled and dodged out of the way of Andi's swing.

"I'm just funnin' with ya," said Archie. "When I told my buddy Larry Newsom that you were getting married in our church, he told me that you were the best damn doctor in all of Munchkin Land."

Andi's face immediately softened from mock anger and embarrassment to an expression of kind joy, as if someone gave her a puppy for her birthday. "Awwww, do you know Larry?" Larry was a long-time patient back in Denver who stands six foot eight and teases her occasionally about her height, or lack thereof.

"Larry and I go way back," said Archie, "he always talks about his sweet little doctor, so when Paul shows up one day with a sweet little doctor from Denver and asked permission to use our church, I called him up and sure enough, it were you!"

"This has such a nice feel to it!" gasped Lucy as she raised the gun to her shoulder over and over and tested, aiming it at several objects.

"Maybe I should get a gun too," pondered Andi aloud.

"NO!" Macy and Lucy were pretty forceful in their answer.

Archie turned to Lucy, who was still admiring the competition rifle. "You like?"

"I LOVE!" sighed Lucy. "I wish I had a place where I could shoot it, though."

Andi took a compound bow down off the wall, and test pulled the string. "You can shoot whenever you want on our land." She looked at the bow with a disappointed look on her face.

Lucy handed the rifle gently to Archie. "I'll take it, and about 200 SK Match 40 grains, and did you say forty-four hundred?"

"I think it was forty-four fifty... with the ammo and the carrying case."

"You're a good man, Archie."

As Archie carried the rifle to the counter, he glanced over at Andi, who was looking at the complexities of the compound bow she was holding. "Need some help over there, doc? If you're not familiar with those, I'd suggest a nice recurve. Compound bows are awful complex contraptions."

"Ohhhhh, I don't know... none of them come in pink..."

"I have that one you're holding in pink camo, if you have your heart set on pink," smiled Archie.

Just as Macy was going to step in and ask Archie to not take advantage of the new girl in town, Andi said, "Really? Oh goody! I'll take that, a Trophy Ridge React 5 sight, a Bee Stinger Xtreme stabilizer, a dozen flu-flus, and two dozen practice shafts in HSO."

"Girl!" cried Lucy as she and Andi high-fived each other. Looking at the shocked look on Macy's face, Lucy said, "What do you think we did all day long in Colorado, sit around and treat patients?"

"We used to do a lot of shooting when we were in pre-med," said Andi.

"You're a doctor too?" asked Archie.

"Yes sir, trauma surgeon at ECMC, but I'm starting with the VA in a couple of weeks," said Lucy as she ran her fingers along the carrying case of the Anschütz.

"Well, then!" smiled Archie as he placed two more boxes of .22 caliber ammo on the counter and a cushioned, adjustable shoulder strap. "No charge. I just may need your services someday."

As Lucy and Andi rang up their purchases, Macy stepped up behind them and put a hand on a shoulder of each doctor and whispered "Mes amis, regardez s'il vous plaît..." and nodded toward something going on back in sporting goods.

Yi-jin was looking for the cross-country ski boots and snowshoes and while Lucy and Andi talked with Archie, she began by looking at the boots by herself. The feed store had a few ski boots, but they were huge and clunky and incredibly heavy, and she gave up the idea of cross country skiing. Maybe snowboarding was her speed. The boots look much more comfortable. Just as she took a snowboarding boot off the shelf, she felt rather than heard someone come up behind her.

"Can I help you, ma'am?"

She turned, and it was him, that guy that was staring at her yesterday, Kenny. He stepped a little closer, and she was suddenly taken with how tall he was, and how handsome. It never occurred to her that he was expecting her to say something.

For Kenny's part, he was running on auto-pilot because his actual thought process had shut down. Here he was talking to the most beautiful woman he has ever seen in his life, and she was Korean...

Kenny's first assignment in the US Army truly sucked. It was Fort Bragg, and he was a programming wonk in the Intelligence branch. Just to get away from that mind numbing existence, he volunteered for every isolated remote assignment the Army offered and magically his next assignment was to South Korea. Private First Class Kenneth Johnson fell head over heels in love with the unit, the base, Korea, and Koreans. He loved it so much that he eventually did tours at Camp Humphres and Camp Casey. He had another set of orders to Camp Walker for an extended 3 year tour when Grandpa Archie fell and broke his hip, and two weeks later, his folks were injured in a car wreck.

Kenny did not regret getting out of the Army to come home and help his family. Dad really, truly needed help at the feed store. In fact, it was Kenny that added a lot of the sporting goods. Even though the sporting goods were tucked into a tiny back room of the store, it was a tremendous boon to the business, and it was good to see Grandpa Archie get back on his feet. He enlisted in the NY National Guard and every dime he made from that commitment went into savings for a vacation in Korea. He was planning to go to Korea next summer and see everything he never got to see in the four years he had been stationed there. Maybe Pusan, it's pretty down there.

And suddenly, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen was standing in front of him. His eyes lingered on her jet black hair, her radiant brown eyes, her flawless golden skin, and the prettiest smile he was ever blessed to see. Just by looking at her, he fell in love with Korea all over again. He asked her if he could help her, like she was just an ordinary customer or something, but she didn't respond. Oh God, did he mess it up? Did he say something stupid? Should he have asked in Korean? Or maybe he didn't say anything, maybe he just thought that he asked her. Damnit Kenneth! You're 29 years old, get your shit together and try it again!

He tried to speak, but nothing came out. She must think I'm an IDIOT! He cleared his throat and tried one more time... "Can I help you, ma'am?" Oh crap! Did my voice just squeak?

Yi continued to look up into his sparkling blue eyes and softly said in a fluttery whisper, "Tall..."

They looked at each other for another long moment, then Ken said, "Pardon?"

Yi covered her mouth with one hand and giggled. She cursed herself for acting like a silly teenager and said, "I, uhh... I need ski poles; how tall should they be?"

"That depends on how tall you are and what kind of skiing you intend to do," responded Kenny, still trying to get back on to familiar ground, but failing desperately. She looked so cute when she giggled!

"I'm five foot seven and we're going cross country skiing, I guess."

"A 140 centimeter pole should be perfect for you; we have them in stock. Is there anything else I could help you find?"

Yi look flustered and shrugged her shoulders. "Everything, I think. I just moved here from Florida and we're going to have a blizzard party and we'll be doing cross country skiing and snowshoeing. I need ski poles, ski boots, snowshoes, muck-a-lucks, and something called a Blue Polly. God, I hope that last one is a drink."

"Let's take care of your shopping list, then we'll go over to Worzil's and see if they have a Blue Polly. We have them here, but they're underwear. Maybe we can get luckier at Worzil's?"

She gave a single nod of her head and said, "Ok!"

"To start with, you're looking at the wrong ski boots..."

"How do you know?" She was worried that he may be psychic. If he were, he'd see the sexy little scenarios that were running through her head.

He reached out and took the ski boot she still held in her left hand. "This is an alpine ski boot; we want something more comfortable."

'Oh God!' she screamed in her head; she had forgotten she was holding that boot. She automatically put her hand over her mouth again and giggled and blushed, which made her mentally scream at herself again. 'Might as well get a Hello Kitty t-shirt, Yi, because you're acting like a schoolgirl'.

Kenny could hardly concentrate. She was so cute when she giggled, and when she wasn't laughing, she was simply beautiful. "Here, you'll want something like this. What size shoe do you wear?"

"Seven," she almost couldn't get the word out because she wanted to shout, "Hold me!"

He took a box down off a shelf and led her to a chair where she sat. He removed her right sneaker, it was at this point where Macy saw what was going on and whispered to Andi and Lucy, "Mes amis, regardez s'il vous plaît..." (Please look at this, my friends)

Ken slipped the sneaker off her dainty foot and rolled a warm, fluffy ski sock on, then eased a Rossignol woman's ski boot on and laced it up. The three friends watched from across the store as the scene unfolded. At first Lucy was going to say, "Nice boots. I have a pair like them." But she looked closer and gasped, then whispered, "His hands are shaking!"

"Her whole body is trembling," whispered Andi, as she smiled with the remembrance of how she trembles when Paul touches her.

"Look at her eyes!" whispered Macy. "her eyes never leave him, it is like he has mesmerized her." They watched Ken and Yi for a few moments. His hands never left her leg, even after getting the boot laced up. All the while, Andi and Lucy were taking pictures with their cell phones.

"Do you like them?" asked Ken as he slipped the boot off of her foot. He placed the boot back in the box, then massaged her foot gently before putting her sneaker back on. She bit her lower lip as he massaged her foot in an effort to keep from crying out, but all three women heard her gasp.

"They are comfortable," said Yi, her voice trembling with passion, "but I can't really afford them..."

Suddenly Andi appeared, grabbed the shoebox and another pair of socks, and said to Kenny, "She'll take 'em," and walked away. She placed the boots and socks on the counter and put her credit card on top of the box. "Whatever she wants, it's on me."

Archie glanced over at Yi and Ken, who were now looking at snowshoes. "Looks to me like she's wantin' my grandson most. Should I wrap him up and have him delivered?"

Macy soon joined them at the counter with a pair of snowshoes, a set of 140 cm ski poles, a pair of adjustable hiking poles, and two full sets of blue polypropylene thermal underwear - "blue pollys". "These are nice!" exclaimed Macy as she examined the thermal underwear. "I did not have anything like this in Quebec."

Andi examined them too and said, "I never had anything like this in Denver!"

"It's because every spare dime you had gone into dressing the babies," said Lucy as she walked up with several tags. "Parka, mittens, and pink knit ski cap with cute kitty ears." Then she laid a pair of pink camouflage mukluks on the counter. "And these." The women turned to look at Yi and Ken and saw Yi wearing the pink cap, her beaming face split by a huge smile. She was listening to Ken say something. They raised their phones to get a picture of Yi in the kitty hat when Yi's expression changed to one of surprise and delight. She raised up on her tiptoes and gave Ken a kiss, then, shaking with joy, she gave him an enormous hug.

"I don't know what you're feeding that boy Archie," said Lucy as they watched Yi drag Ken toward the exit by the hand, "but I want some to give to Gus."

"Oui! John may need some too," sighed Macy.

As Yi and Ken passed the counter, Ken grabbed his parka from the coat rack and said, "Heading to Worzil's for dinner, grandpa!" and with a jingle of the bell, the door slammed shut.

Andi looked at her phone. The photo of Yi and Ken kissing was perfect. "Sunny is going to freak," she smiled.

<><><><><> ֎ <><><><><>

"Good morning Eliza," said Andi, as she sat down on Yi's bed and gently shook Yi's shoulder.

"Hmmmm?" Yi rolled over and her face still wore the smile she wore when last seen dragging Kenny Johnson out of the feed store. "Eliza who?"

Andi handed her a cup of coffee. "Eliza Doolittle, you know, from My Fair Lady. Audrey Hepburn? She sang 'I Could Have Danced All Night' after an all-nighter with Rex Harrison?"

"We didn't go dancing; we were just talking." The look on Yi's face said that she was close to melting into a puddle of sheer joy.

"I know, we got a text from Ayato Tanaka at 2:00 AM." Andi pulled out her phone and read, "Dear Doctor Andi, please come get your hired help. I want to close and go home to my wife."

"He's so funny." Yi rolled over on to her side with her back toward Andi and pulled the sheet up, covering a satisfied smile.

"Last time I mentioned Ayato, you called him a jerk."

"He's getting better."

"Come on, it's Monday morning, you're back on the clock." When Yi didn't move, Andi gave her a smack on the butt. Then she brought up the picture of Yi kissing Ken on her phone, leaned over the supine Yi and held her phone where Yi could see it. "Your mom loved the picture."

Yi's eyes flew open, and she sat up. She grabbed Andi's phone and stared at the picture. "You didn't!" She then picked up her phone and saw that there were seven text messages from her mom. "You did," she groaned.

Andi snatched her phone back and brought up a picture of Ken and Yi gazing into each other's eyes, the one where Yi was wearing the pink hat with kitty ears. "Actually, I sent her this one." When Yi sagged in relief, Andi asked, "So what was with the kiss? Usually, one saves that for after their first date."

"He told me something meaningful, something that told me that we just might have a long and happy relationship." Yi hugged herself and leaned back against the headboard with a sigh.

"Well? Out with it!"

With a dreamy smile, she sighed, "He said that he loves to fish and that he is looking forward to teaching me fly-fishing."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Fly-fishing earned a kiss?"

Yi gave Andi a lecherous smile. "You're not going to believe what teaching me to tie a dry fly will get him."

Actually, Andi could understand Yi's feelings. Finding out that someone whom you are attracted to also shares a passion of yours can be emotionally overwhelming. Andi herself broke down in tears of joy when Paul told her how much he loved the twins. "Ok you, up and at 'em. Paul and I have the truck loaded. We're going to go warm up the cabin and stock the shelves. The girls are packed, and we have their stuff in the truck. Actually, they're re-packed. I checked their backpacks, and they were full of Pringles and Jolly Ranchers. I repacked their bags and made sure they have some clothes to wear. You just need to get them fed and then bring your stuff with you. There's some money on the table if you want to go to the Cozy corner for breakfast, Ok?"

Yi eased out of bed and walked over to the shower. "I asked Ken to come join us for a day, if you don't mind."

"Not in the least. Paul and I are heading out now."

"You just want some mommy and daddy time."

"Like I said, we're going to warm up the cabin. Taa!"

Yi started the shower and stepped into the gentle spray; her supercharged nerve endings tingled with joy at the touch of the warm water. Suddenly, her shower was filled with the sound of giggling, and she felt little hands on her. She opened her eyes and found that the twins had joined her. Off in the distance, she heard Paul call out, "I tried to stop them!"